Leading by 18 with just over 15 minutes to play, UCLA basketball had Cal on the ropes Sunday night, with sole possession of second place in the Pac-12 just about wrapped up.
But first, to close out an eventual 76-64 victory, they had to overcome a Bird problem.
Cal freshman Jabari Bird, who has struggled of late after coming back from an ankle injury, played just four minutes in the first half. He had as many field goal attempts as he did fouls – one – and officially flew under UCLA’s radar.
The whole Golden Bears team did.
With two minutes remaining in the first half, Cal cut the UCLA’s lead to seven, and for the next 10 minutes, the Bruins held their Bay Area foe without a field goal, flightless. With 15:18 remaining in the game, Cal coach Mike Montgomery let his freshman loose. Bird scored all twelve of his points in the second half and gave Cal a spark that cut UCLA’s lead to just three.
But, after an 18-4 run, Cal ran out of wind. Bird mentioned as much.
“(The performance) was a boost to my confidence, but I didn’t have the energy,” he said.
Freshman guard Bryce Alford took advantage of his overdrawn opposition and ended a two-plus minute scoring drought with an easy layup. Sophomore forward/guard Kyle Anderson followed with five straight points to give the Bruins a 58-52 lead and force a six-minute exhale to close the game.
“I have to credit our players to just have the mindset and the toughness to have a great run put against them and then make plays,” said coach Steve Alford.
In the second half, Anderson made his fair share. The sophomore cut to the basket with ease and knocked the Bears off-balance, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the final 20 minutes. He also added a team-high 12 rebounds and five assists to secure his 11th double-double of the season. Also in double figures were Alford, who had 11 of his 13 points in the second half, sophomore guard Jordan Adams with 12 points, junior guard Norman Powell with 11 points and redshirt senior forward David Wear with a career-high 18 points.
Wear played just 12 minutes in Thursday’s win over Stanford and missed several practices during the week with flu-like symptoms. In the opening minutes of UCLA’s Sunday win, he was hard for Cal to stomach, scoring five of the Bruins’ first seven points and two three-pointers in less than six minutes.
“Usually when you’re being active and you’re moving out on the court and putting yourself in a position to be successful, the ball kind of finds you,” Wear said. “I was just trying to make a play on the ball and just try to get open shots.”
The victory over Cal (14-6, 5-2 Pac-12) gives UCLA (16-4, 5-2) an open shot at a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament with 11 conference games left to play. Their second straight double-digit win over a potential NCAA tournament team also gave the Bruins a confidence they’ll likely need as they play five of their next seven Pac-12 games on the road.
“It’s very important … to capitalize on the opportunities we have at home,” Anderson said. “It’s good to be second in the conference and now we can go out on the road and handle business.”
UCLA may trail Arizona in the standings by a healthy two games, but for the first time in this anything-goes Pac-12 season, they’ve been the best version of themselves two games running.