Chris Smith hadn’t started a game in over a month.
But the sophomore guard made two of the Bruins’ biggest plays Thursday night.
UCLA men’s basketball (14-13, 7-7 Pac-12) staved off a late comeback from Oregon State (16-9, 8-5), winning 68-67. The Bruins were tied or ahead for the first 38:28 of the game, but the Beavers finally took a two-point lead down the stretch.
With 28 seconds left and the Oregon State lead cut to one, Smith pulled down a missed 3-pointer by forward Tres Tinkle.
He took the ball down the court and slashed to the hoop with 20 seconds left, finishing through a foul to give UCLA a one-point lead.
“I was really just trying to get it into a set,” Smith said. “I don’t really remember how much time was on the shot clock, but I figured we were trying to get the last shot. When I got it cross court, it was just me and Thompson, so I figured ‘Just attack, try to make something happen.’”
Smith missed the and-one and Tinkle got the rebound.
Seventeen seconds later, the ball wound up in Tinkle’s hands again, and he heaved up a deep 3 that would sail through the air and miss everything.
Sophomore guard Jaylen Hands missed both free throws with one second left, but the Beavers missed their full-court prayer and the Bruins held on.
Hands and Smith contributed to the Bruins going 4-of-12 from the line down the stretch, but some unlikely names helped UCLA get out to a 14-of-16 start from the charity stripe.
Freshman center Moses Brown – a 35.3 percent free throw shooter entering Thursday – went 4-of-5, the first time he shot over 50 percent from the line since Nov. 9 against Long Beach State.
“Getting fouled, missing two free throws and giving them another opportunity to score is just like a turnover,” Brown said. “So (I) just (tried) to maximize my possessions and … make the most out of every time I get the ball.”
Freshman guard Jules Bernard scored two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the first half. When Oregon State started using the full-court press in the second half, Bernard said he changed his mindset.
“They started pressing us,” Bernard said. “When teams press us like that, coach emphasizes to attack the basket. I did what I had to do: I attacked the basket, got fouled and made my free throws.”
The freshman scored eight points in the second period, with every single one coming from the free throw line. He finished 8-of-10 on the night, setting career highs in both makes and attempts.
The Bruins led by as many as 12 in the second half, but that lead slipped away due to high volume scoring by Tinkle and guard Stephen Thompson Jr. The two combined for 40 points on 18 field goals to go along with 18 rebounds and 10 assists.
UCLA did things differently.
Its leading scorer was Brown, who turned in a 14-point double-double. Six Bruins finished with between eight and 14 points, something interim coach Murry Bartow said was a result of good ball movement early on.
“Well we keep telling them – and (assistant coach) Tyus (Edney) probably saying more than any of us – but we just want better ball movement,” Bartow said. “I just thought we were moving the ball much better in the first half.”
UCLA picked up 10 assists in the first half compared to just three in the second.
Smith scored 10 points and the game-winner for the Bruins, but 16 and a half minutes earlier, he went viral with a poster.
“It was crazy,” Bernard said. “If you look at the bench when it happened, I got up right away, ran down the bench. I was going crazy.”
The sophomore drove on 7-foot Beaver forward Kylor Kelley – the conference’s leading shot-blocker – and he said he went for the dunk knowing that a layup would have been sent back.
“When I did that little hop-step, I thought I was going to be picked, but I was like, ‘Man, I still have the ball,’” Smith said. “And I saw (Kelley) … and I couldn’t lay the ball up. And I figured I had to try to dunk it and it went in. I don’t know what happened after that.”
Everyone else saw what happened – Smith climbed a ladder and flushed it home.
UCLA will take the court again at Pauley Pavilion when Oregon comes to town with a chance to avenge its 13-point blown lead loss on Jan. 10.