TEMPE, Ariz. ““ There was a time when, just by the letters on their jersey, the UCLA men’s basketball team could command at least a share of the spotlight. Today at Arizona State’s Wells Fargo Arena, the Sun Devils made it look easy to outshine the Bruins.
On the final game of the regular season, UCLA (13-17, 8-10 Pac-10) lost 56-46, its third straight and sixth defeat in the last eight tries.
The Sun Devils (22-9, 12-6) came out with a blazing start, shooting their way to a 13-0 lead and scoring on five of their first six possessions. The lead put the momentum in ASU’s pocket for the rest of the afternoon.
UCLA sophomore guard Malcolm Lee and senior forward Nikola Dragovic each had 15 points, sharing the team lead as well as the burden of Michael Roll’s uncommonly poor shooting night.
“I just couldn’t buy a bucket,” Roll said. The senior guard and team’s leading scorer was just 1-for-9 from the floor, missing all six of his shots from beyond the arc.
Despite its slow start, UCLA managed to work its way back into the game with back-to-back threes by Dragovic, which brought the team within five. But that was the closest the Bruins would get.
There was a lot riding on the game for the Sun Devils. Not only was the game on national television, but it was also their Senior Day and a win would give them a shot at a share of the Pac-10 title.
ASU senior center Eric Boateng certainly took those circumstances to heart. With game-highs of 16 points and 14 rebounds, he was the undisputed star of the game.
UCLA was once again undermanned with freshman starting center Reeves Nelson missing his fourth straight game with an eye injury.
“I think it would have been a totally different outcome if Reeves had been guarding Boateng,” freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt said.
Coach Ben Howland started freshman forward Brendan Lane in Nelson’s place, but Lane could not contain his bigger and stronger opponent.
“He got a rude awakening as to what it’s like to play against a really good player,” Howland said.
For the Bruins, their ultimate fate wouldn’t have been much different either way. UCLA will be awarded either the fifth seed or sixth seed in next week’s Pac-10 Tournament depending on the outcome of Washington’s trip to Oregon State later today. But anything short of three straight wins in that event will leave the Bruins home for their first free Spring Break since 2004, the last time they missed the postseason.
Roll, the team’s only veteran of three Final Fours, laid out their future quite simply.
“It’s win or go home,” he said. “And I don’t want to go home.”