LAS VEGAS—UCLA made Arizona appear very un-Arizona-like for the first five minutes of Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament final, and was rewarded handsomely.
Red-hot junior guard Norman Powell scored 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the opening ten minutes and the Bruins jumped out to a 14-3 lead. UCLA shot 58.1 percent on the half to Arizona’s 53.3 percent from the field to earn a 43-40 halftime advantage.
Just like the Wildcats’ past opponents, the Bruins saw tremendous difficulty driving the lane early. The solution was Powell, who was able to push up the floor and around physical Arizona space-eaters Kaleb Tarczewski and Aaron Gordon to get high-percentage looks.
UCLA was able to maintain tempo and keep a defensive-minded Arizona team off-balance for stretches, but the Wildcats were kept afloat early thanks to hot three-point shooting. Guard Gabe York came off the bench to nail his first three three-point attempts from beyond the arc, and Arizona was 62.5 percent from deep on the half.
The Wildcats reeled in the Bruins in the closing minutes of the half thanks to two quick fouls on sophomore forward/center Tony Parker. While Parker sat, UCLA’s tallest players on the court were sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson and a rotation of redshirt senior forwards David and Travis Wear, giving Tarczewski huge size mismatches. Tarczewski scored six of his eight points during a 1:25 stretch with just over five minutes remaining in the half.
A free throw from Gordon with 3:34 to play cut UCLA’s lead to 33-32, but Arizona never managed to take the lead.
Anderson has 11 points and six rebounds at the break, with sophomore guard Jordan Adams also adding 10. York leads the Wildcats with nine points, while Pac-12 Player of the Year Nick Johnson has eight.