The post-Steve Alford era is officially underway for the Bruins.
UCLA men’s basketball (7-6) leads Stanford (7-5) 38-32 at the half of the Pac-12 season opener, on pace to break its four-game losing streak. The Bruins hit their first three shots under interim coach Murry Bartow and held the lead for all but 1:23 in the first half.
After the Cardinal cut the Bruin lead to seven at the nine-minute mark, UCLA doubled its lead.
Sophomore guard Jaylen Hands threw a no-look alley-oop to freshman center Moses Brown from outside the 3-point line. Hands stole the ball on the next possession and finished an and-one on the fast break.
Sophomore guard Kris WIlkes picked off a Stanford pass just seconds later and flushed a dunk of his own.
The Cardinal went on a 10-0 run out of a timeout to cut the deficit to four, but the run was halted by a corner 3 by freshman guard David Singleton.
Sophomore guard Chris Smith got his first start of the season, while redshirt junior Alex Olesinski made his season debut.
Hands led the Bruins in scoring with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting to go along with three rebounds and two assists. Brown has nine points and six rebounds and has missed just one shot.
Wilkes picked up two early fouls and scored just two points in five minutes.
Thirty of UCLA’s 38 points came in the paint – 10 of which came off dunks – while the Bruins shot just 2-of-11 from downtown.
UCLA hasn’t lost to Stanford in Pauley Pavilion since 2005.