The last time that UCLA and Gonzaga met was one of the top moments in the past decade of Bruin basketball.
Facing the Bulldogs in the 2006 Sweet Sixteen, the Bruins roared back from down 17, with guard Jordan Farmar stealing the ball in the backcourt and finding forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute under the basket to take the lead with 10 seconds left. The tears of Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison and the “heartbreak city” sound byte by commentator Gus Johnson have graced March Madness highlight videos ever since.
While Saturday’s 87-74 loss to the No. 9 Bulldogs didn’t end with an emotional breakdown, it certainly made 2006 feel eons ago. In its third defeat of the season, all at the hands of ranked opponents, UCLA has shown that this year’s team is still a long ways away from earning a spot in the top 25, let alone a trip to the Final Four.
UCLA had no trouble replicating the double-digit first-half deficit it had in ’06 – that part was easy. The comeback, not so much.
Facing a Gonzaga team with the fourth-highest offensive efficiency, according to kenpom.com, UCLA could ill afford one of the slow starts that have plagued it through its last two games.
But that was exactly what the Bruins got. UCLA (8-3) hit just four of its first 20 shots, allowing Gonzaga (9-1), which shot 58.8 percent during that stretch, to build a 23-11 lead.
“We’ve had a couple bad starts this week. I don’t think this was such a bad start from an effort and intensity (standpoint) – I think we just didn’t make shots,” said coach Steve Alford. “We got down 10 points early where they made shots, we didn’t, and this is a hard team to get in that kind of hole.”
The Bruins headed into halftime shooting 32.3 percent to the Bulldogs’ 58.6 percent, but trailed just 38-27, well within striking distance if they could find an offensive rhythm.
Coming out of halftime, UCLA was able to score with more consistency, quickly cutting the deficit to single digits. But any offensive push the Bruins had was met with a momentum-stopping shot or two by the Bulldogs.
After UCLA pulled within eight, Gonzaga hit a pair of 3-pointers in succession to push its lead up to 14, the largest of the night to that point.
The Bruins continued to shoot away at the Bulldogs’ lead with a barrage of 3-point attempts, but Gonzaga’s continued stratospheric shooting percentage – 58.5 percent for the game – kept UCLA just treading water.
“They ran their offense to a T,” said freshman forward Kevon Looney. “If you gave them an open shot, they weren’t gonna miss it.”
With five minutes remaining, the Bruins once again mounted a comeback attempt, with a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Bryce Alford and another free throw from sophomore guard Isaac Hamilton bringing the Bruins within eight.
Under a minute later, a 3-pointer from Gonzaga guard Kevin Pangos put Gonzaga back up 11 and took the air out of the tires of UCLA’s comeback.
About 30 seconds after that, the Bulldogs removed the tires entirely.
Senior guard Norman Powell stole the ball and sprinted down the court, dribbling behind his back to evade a defender. As he leaped for a layup, his attempt was emphatically swatted away, UCLA’s hopes plummeting to the ground with the same velocity as the ball.
Gonzaga maintained control of the game from that point on, rendering moot UCLA’s much-improved second-half performance, in which the Bruins shot 51.7 percent, turned the ball over just three times and nearly matched the Bulldog’s scoring output.
“We didn’t start realizing until the second half that they were helping off the wings and it left the lanes open, so it gave us room to attack,” Hamilton said. “We just figured things out kind of late.”
Although disappointed by the loss, Steve Alford said he actually saw more positives in Saturday night’s performance than he did in Wednesday’s win over UC Riverside.
With the season kicking into full gear now – with a showdown against No. 1 Kentucky next Saturday in Chicago, followed by a trip to Alabama, then the start of Pac-12 play – silver linings can only go so far at this point.