The Bruins had been in this situation before.
Up by double digits in the second half at home, the UCLA men’s basketball team’s control of the game was beginning to fade.
Last Friday, the Bruins let a 12-point lead with 9:50 left in the second half disappear in just four minutes. Monmouth ended up stunning UCLA in overtime, ruining the blue-and-gold season opener at home.
Two days later, the Bruins’ 15-point lead evaporated and soured into a one-point deficit, but UCLA pulled out a win against Cal Poly.
Thursday night, the home team jumped out to a quick double-digit lead less than five minutes into the game, extending it to 20 with 12:55 left in the second half.
But then came Pepperdine. The Waves crashed the offensive boards hard, cutting the Bruins lead to 12 in just under three minutes.
Coach Steve Alford looked like he was about to call a timeout, but let his team play on.
“I was probably one score away from calling that timeout,” Alford said. “I wanted to see early on how they would handle it, and they handled it pretty good.”
There was no rerun of the opening night. In a sink-or-swim situation, freshman guard Prince Ali attacked hard, drawing two straight trips to the free throw line, where he hit all four en route to a 12-point game off the bench.
Ali wasn’t the only UCLA guard to reach double digits. While the Bruin bigs had grabbed the spotlight for the first two games of the season, all four UCLA guards had their moments Thursday night.
Junior Bryce Alford finished with a team-high 19 points, freshman Aaron Holiday scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half and junior Isaac Hamilton added 10 points.
“Obviously the first game we didn’t play together, we didn’t play as a backcourt,” Alford said about the guards’ early struggles. “We were playing as individuals, and I think we came together and decided we got to play together to help this team win.”
UCLA finished the game by keeping the lead at double digits, never giving Pepperdine much of a chance to make a final run.
The Bruins seem to have fixed some of the issues that plagued the team this home stand, but UCLA will travel to Hawaii this weekend for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, with the first game against UNLV on Monday.
Big chemistry
After sophomore center Thomas Welsh’s career-high 22 points last Sunday, senior forward/center Tony Parker said that he was more concerned about the two’s off-court chemistry, joking that Welsh needed to get his swagger right – maybe by growing out his hair and wearing a headband.
After another UCLA win, Parker seemed to have given up on seeing Welsh with a new hairstyle. However, Parker is still pushing to see a different Welsh on the court.
“It’s just getting his swagger up to par, yell or something,” Parker said. “He’s such a great kid, but you just want him to get a little mean and nasty, so I always talk to him about it.”
The Parker and Welsh tandem has been dynamic since the start of the season, but Parker’s still working to improve the connection.
Even making sure that both are on the same page music-wise.
“I let Tom listen to rap and he makes me listen to country,” Parker said. “Those are the adjustments you have to make when you’re playing with somebody and you really want to get the camaraderie down.”
Compiled by Derrek Li, Bruin senior staff.