UCLA upsets No. 7 Arizona 87-84 on Westbrook Night

Russell Westbrook jumped to his feet, nodding his head emphatically and cheering loudly. It wasn’t an NBA matchup or an All-Star contest, but rather a UCLA men’s basketball game.

Not just any game, either. A rivalry matchup between the Bruins and the Pac-12 powerhouse Arizona Wildcats that came down to the wire Thursday at Pauley Pavilion. On “Westbrook Night” honoring Bruin alum and Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook, No. 7 Arizona came back from down 14 points to make it 84-84 with 10.9 seconds left.

With the game on the line, junior guard Bryce Alford got the ball at the top of the key.

“That’s something I’ve always loved – late game moments,” Alford said. “Even back in the day on the driveway, I’d have my mom count down from five and I’d shoot it at the buzzer. … I’d do it till I made it.”

In a move that has become almost a crunch-time trademark for Alford, the guard dribbled to his right and drove inside the 3-point line before creating space, stepping back and unleashing a three. The fans at Pauley Pavilion rose to their feet and watched as the ball arced straight toward the basket and found the net just as time expired.

He made it.

via GIPHY

“I hit the shot and I turn around and (Westbrook) is just screaming at me,” Alford said. “He’s like one of us.”

That play was an exclamation mark on UCLA’s upset victory as the team stormed back from a disappointing conference-opening road trip. It took Alford a couple plays to shake off the shooting slump that pervaded last weekend’s performance, but once he did, he led all scorers with 25 points on 50 percent field goal shooting.

“That wasn’t the prettiest of road trips we had to come back from and this was a game we had to have,” said coach Steve Alford.

Aside from the game-winner, however, the Bruins’ main flashy plays came not from their scoring leader but from guards freshman Aaron Holiday and junior Isaac Hamilton. Hamilton picked up where he left off last weekend, when he scored 27 against Washington State, opening the game with a 3-pointer. Holiday put on a show right in front of Kevin Durant, who sat courtside with the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The freshman sank a 3, scored a layup and laid in a stolen Arizona inbounds pass all within a two-minute span.

“I was hitting shots (and) getting my team involved so I think I came out and got the offensive game started,” Holiday said.

Holiday finished the night with 15 points, going 6-9 from the field and nailing both 3-pointers he attempted. Hamilton rounded out the guard play with 14 points of his own on a night when the Bruins couldn’t miss a shot. UCLA shot 52 percent on field goals and 50 percent from beyond the arc.

The Bruins’ strong shooting helped them build a lead they relied on late in the game as the Wildcats mounted their comeback. While Bryce Alford said his team made a couple bad mistakes down the stretch as the clock wound down, he saved them with his late-game heroics. As the buzzer sounded and the band began a triumphant round of the fight song, the 12,026 fans present roared loudly – a crowd Arizona coach Sean Miller criticized just last month.

UCLA let its play do the talking Thursday by beating a team that has knocked the Bruins out of the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments in the past. Even three games into the season, the team knows what this means for March.