Bryce Alford seems to have a knack for performing in the clutch.
In the first start of his UCLA career – back on Feb. 27, 2014 against Oregon – the junior guard made two 3-point jumpers in the final 33 seconds of regulation, helping the Bruins send the game to overtime.
Then, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, Alford had 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting against Southern Methodist, with his goaltended 3-pointer acting as the game-winner.
Against Gonzaga this past weekend, Alford made a high-arcing left-handed floater off the glass in the final two minutes, preserving UCLA’s slim lead. He nearly had the game-clinching 3-pointer in that game too, but it got waved off by video replay.
On Tuesday night against Louisiana-Lafayette, Alford stepped up in crunch time once again, nailing a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the right wing to put No. 22 UCLA ahead by nine points with 1:50 to go. Alford’s dagger 3-pointer sealed the eventual 89-80 victory for the Bruins (8-3).
“One thing I think Bryce has really gotten into here in his junior year: He’s really understanding the time that we need him to make a big shot,” said coach Steve Alford. “He’s just got that sense to him and that ability (to know): ‘Hey, the team now needs me to make a shot.’”
Alford scored just 10 of his game-high 27 points in the second half on Tuesday night, but his lone 3-pointer of the period came at the perfect time. Louisiana-Lafayette was surging, having cut UCLA’s once-comfortable 19-point lead to just six points.
“We definitely took our foot of the gas,” said senior forward/center Tony Parker. “If we kept our foot on the gas, we would’ve made it way easier on ourselves.”
The Bruins came out of the gates surging – leading 8-0 to start the game, and 37-18 by the 6:57 mark in the first half. It didn’t look like Alford’s late-game heroics would be needed at all to ensure the victory.
“I thought we started really well, so I like the start,” Steve Alford said. “I think what happened is we haven’t been up 20 in a while. And I think we get up 19 or 20 and we relaxed.”
Louisiana-Lafayette cut UCLA’s lead to 12 points by halftime and to four points by the 10:13 mark in the second half. Ragin’ Cajuns forward Shawn Long was particularly effective, scoring 26 points against a Bruin defense that was without starting sophomore center Thomas Welsh.
“We prepped with Tom (guarding Long) and then Tom’s sickness hit him this morning,” Steve Alford said. “We really found out at shootaround around 10:30 (a.m.). So that made it hard (to guard Long) from that standpoint.”
Also missing from the game was freshman guard Prince Ali, who is day-to-day with a bone bruise in his knee.
Those injuries – in addition to foul trouble on junior guard Isaac Hamilton – forced junior guard Noah Allen to come to the fore in the clutch for the first time all season. Allen made a clutch 3-pointer with 10:00 to go in the second half to extend a four-point UCLA lead up to seven.
But that would be Allen’s only made field goal of the night. With minimal scoring from the guard positions, Bryce Alford was the one tasked with the scoring duties as the game entered crunch time. Not only did he make the 3-pointer with 1:50 to go, he also made two free throws with 24 seconds left to remove any doubt of a Bruin victory.
“(Knowing when to assert yourself is) something that you learn through experience,” Bryce Alford said. “I went through stretches last year where I had to figure that out. … I know when the team needs me to score and when they need me to get into (the offense).”