OAKLAND “”mdash; UCLA could’ve panicked. It would’ve
been easy.
Trailing 71-62 with 3:27 to play, many teams might have packed
it in. Good season, good try, see you next year.
But with 3:27 to play Thursday, the second-seeded Bruins (30-6)
decided they weren’t ready to be finished, scoring the final
11 points to escape with a 73-71 victory over third-seeded Gonzaga
(29-4) in the Sweet 16 and earn a date with top-seeded Memphis in
the Elite Eight.
“No matter what the score is, there’s always a
chance,” sophomore point guard Jordan Farmar said.
“Some crazy things can happen, and some crazy things happened
today.”
No kidding.
For 35 minutes, it looked like a game that UCLA had no business
winning. Gonzaga was the more aggressive team, the more composed
team, the better team.
But in the end, UCLA was the winning team. All they needed was a
mind-numbing, whirlwind 3:27 to do it.
“If you had to bet who would win the game, I don’t
think one person would’ve bet that UCLA pulls this one
out,” senior center Ryan Hollins said. “But our guys
never give up to the very end. It was a crazy win.”
Nothing was crazier than the final 16 seconds.
After Hollins hit two free throws to bring the Bruins within one
point at 71-70, UCLA applied the pressure.
Gonzaga’s All-American Adam Morrison successfully passed
out of a UCLA double-team, but Bulldog forward J.P. Batista
wasn’t so lucky.
Senior guard Cedric Bozeman forced the steal out of a trap on
the right sideline, and Farmar picked up the ball and heaved a pass
to freshman forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who was waiting under
the basket.
Mbah a Moute caught the pass, steadied himself, and made the
layup to give UCLA its first lead of the game.
“I never thought we were going to lose the game,”
Mbah a Moute said. “We just had to keep digging and
grinding.”
After making the go-ahead layup, Mbah a Moute wasn’t done.
He hustled down the court and caught Gonzaga guard Derek Raivio
from behind, forcing the steal that essentially iced the
victory.
Sophomore guard Arron Afflalo made one of two free throws,
Batista missed a shot at the buzzer, and Bruin euphoria overtook
the Oakland Arena.
“That was a great finish for us,” said UCLA coach
Ben Howland, who advances past the Sweet 16 for the first time in
his coaching career. “It’s really just a testament to
the character, the toughness, the heart of our players to have the
never-quit attitude. I’m really, really proud of
them.”
All season, UCLA has spoken about overcoming adversity, but that
was nothing compared to the adversity the Bruins faced
Thursday.
They shot 25.9 percent from the field in the first half. They
turned the ball over seven times. Even their one constant, defense,
was incredibly lacking in the game’s first 20 minutes as
Gonzaga scored 42 points on 57.7 percent shooting.
But the Bruins, who hold the longest winning streak in the
nation at 10 games, battled through it all.
Gonzaga was only 9-for-25 from the field in the second half, and
the Bulldogs didn’t score a field goal for the game’s
final five minutes.
“It just happened in a blur,” said Morrison, who
finished with 24 points for Gonzaga. “That’s the way
the game works. If you don’t execute down the stretch, you
pay for it.”
UCLA could have given up. They had no timeouts. Afflalo and Mbah
a Moute both had four fouls. Morrison is arguably the best player
in the nation.
Doubt could have crept in. But it didn’t.
“Obviously it was desperation time, down nine with three
minutes to go,” Afflalo said. “You’ve got to
bring it all out.”
And as it’s been all season, there wasn’t just one
hero. Bozeman forced the steal. Farmar made the pass. Mbah a Moute
made the basket.
“Everybody doubted us from day one. Nobody picked us to
win the Pac-10. Nobody thought we would win the Pac-10 Tournament,
let alone be in the Elite Eight,” Farmar said.
“Toward the end of the year when we started getting
momentum people starting coming along, but we know that really
everybody doubted us, and only the guys in this room really
believed.”
And thanks to 3:27 of brilliance, the dream is still alive.
UCLA will face top-seeded Memphis on Saturday at 4 p.m. in
Oakland. The game will be shown on CBS.