LAS VEGAS — With Arizona playing in front of an MGM Garden Arena filled almost entirely with its own fans, UCLA did all it could to keep the Wildcats from making themselves at home.
The Bruins lost to the Wildcats 70-64 in the Pac-12 semifinal, but gave the conference’s No. 1 seed all it could handle, matching Arizona’s toughness in what several players described as one of the most physical games of the year.
Five minutes into the game, it quickly became apparent that Arizona’s physicality was too much for UCLA to compete with. Only the Bruins did just that.
After getting knocked down in the opening minutes, falling behind 11-2 and being called for five fouls – including two apiece by sophomore guard Isaac Hamilton and junior forward/center Tony Parker – the Bruins picked themselves up and struck back.
Despite Arizona being one of the only teams in the Pac-12 against which UCLA does not have a size advantage, the Bruins began force-feeding the ball inside, welcoming the contact. Freshman center Thomas Welsh converted on two hook shots, Parker drew a pair of fouls and converted on the free throws, and senior guard Norman Powell fought to rebound his own miss and muscled in a put-back.
By halftime, UCLA held a 14-6 advantage on points in the paint, converting its frustration with Arizona’s defensive pressure and interior contact into energy.
“That’s just something that you gotta fuel off of and just keep playing,” Parker said. “When stuff like that happens, you gotta come out and play extremely hard.”
Meanwhile, the Bruins began dishing out some punishment of their own. Arizona found itself mired in an offensive slump as forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and center Kaleb Tarczewski struggled mightily inside on offense. Hollis-Jefferson finished with eight points on 2-10 shooting, and Tarczewski had just five points and one rebound before fouling out late in the second half.
The Wildcats’ intensity on defense didn’t let up, however. UCLA’s perimeter players struggled to create any space, hounded by the sticky defense of Arizona guard T.J. McConnell, forward Stanley Johnson and Hollis-Jefferson. Still, the Bruins found a way to deal with it, continuing to get the ball inside to Parker, who scored 11 second-half points.
“When a team’s physical like that, you gotta kinda brush their teeth with the ball and try to get them off you, and I thought we did a good job, especially in the second half,” said sophomore guard Bryce Alford.
UCLA’s composure in the face of the constant body bumping in the post and defensive hounding on the perimeter held tough for the first 30 minutes of the game. But as the contest reached its final stages, cracks began to appear in the Bruins’ resolve, as the Wildcats outhustled the Bruins during their 15-0 run to retake the lead.
“That’s why they’re a good defensive team. They get up in you and get you frustrated,” Alford said. “I thought we handled it pretty well tonight, but there were a few times – especially when they went on their run – that we got frustrated.”
That frustration was most apparent on the defensive glass, where Arizona began to manhandle UCLA. Multiple times in the final 10 minutes, the Wildcats secured offensive rebounds to extend possessions, taking advantage of lazy Bruin box-outs to grab missed 3-pointers and free throws and follow them up with layups.
“I think they stepped up their physicality, and we kinda backed down a little bit in those last 10 minutes,” Welsh said. “I think that was the reason they got those rebounds and the reason they won the game.”
After outrebounding Arizona for almost 30 minutes, UCLA ended the game trailing in the rebound battle by nine and on the scoreboard by six. As the Bruins’ toughness faded, so too did their hopes at stealing a win – one that would have almost certainly earned them a berth in the NCAA tournament.
Instead, all UCLA did was come close.