It’s safe to assume the Bruins would have liked that broken rim delay to last a little longer.
UCLA men’s basketball (13-13, 6-7 Pac-12) entered the second half down just nine. But after a 35-minute delay to fix a loose rim before play started back up, Stanford (14-11, 7-6) opened up the frame with a 15-3 run to bury UCLA en route to a 104-80 victory.
With 14:46 left in the second half, Cardinal guard Daejon Davis lofted an alley-oop to forward KZ Okpala off an inbound to make it a 21-point game.
On the ensuing possession, sophomore guard Kris Wilkes airballed a corner 3. Eight and a half minutes later, redshirt freshman Cody Riley airballed a free throw, but the referees didn’t even bother blowing the whistle.
And with 4:51 left, redshirt junior guard Prince Ali airballed a wide-open transition 3 that would have made it a nine-point game again.
When the Bruins did cut the lead to single digits 30 seconds later, the Cardinal put together a 12-point run.
UCLA’s primary backcourt in the second half – sophomore guard Jaylen Hands and freshman guard Jules Bernard – combined for 48 points, seven rebounds and five steals on 14-of-21 shooting from the field, 4-of-8 from deep and 16-of-18 from the charity stripe.
Hands led all scorers with a career-high 29 points after he scored 27 in UCLA’s loss to Utah on Feb. 9, while Bernard registered a career-high 19 points and 27 minutes off the bench.
Freshman center Moses Brown has been the tallest player on the court for the majority of conference play, but Stanford boasted a 7-footer of its own Saturday night.
Cardinal center Josh Sharma picked up 22 points and 12 rebounds on 10-of-11 shooting. Brown – who entered the game shooting 65 percent from the field – picked up just seven points on 2-of-8 shooting.
The former five-star recruit had just two dunks for UCLA, while his counterpart flushed it seven times.
Wilkes finished with single-digit points for just the second time this season, scoring a season-low seven points on 2-of-11 shooting. The sophomore left the game in the first half after taking a Sharma elbow to the face, but he was able to return before halftime.
The Bruins’ defensive performance was their worst of the season, allowing a season-high 104 points to the same team they held to 70 points in interim coach Murry Bartow’s first game as head coach.
A mediocre season which might be sufficient for a post-season NIT Tourney first round game ; but the talent is there to leave Las Vegas with the PAC-12 Championship and an automatic qualifier for “the Big Dance”. Save the best for last.
3 games into the non conference play I knew right away that this squad made of selfish individual players with average talent was going nowhere, because each mentality was not about looking to pass first but shooting opened or not to try to impress the NBA scouts
Basketball is no longer a game but more and more a 3 point shooting contest regardless if they make it or not .
And it is going to get worse!. Why would it be otherwise when the wide open ones are now like layups, with the contested ones easier to make than trying to score within the tight space under the basket where many of them get blocked and/or are missed when you have to alter your shots , and when you score its only worth 2 points . It does not makes any sense!
Why would a 20.50 feet shot worth only 2 but one from 20.76 feet worth 3 when the percentage of making it is the same?
Its amazing to me that the big basketball pundits do not see this or question it!
Basketball at its best is a game of ball movements setting up the last pass to the best positioned wide open shot player which ultimately is the one ending up right under the basket for a layup like after a back door cut pass etc…and not that ridiculous 3 points contest, almost impossible to block short of fouling.
If I want to watch a shooting contest, why not just watch the NBA All Star Game skills competition with the best shooters in the world?”