PALO ALTO “”mdash; With UCLA up 37-20 against Stanford toward the end of the first half, it looked like the Bruins would cruise to their fifth consecutive victory.
But in a sudden, stunning turn of events, UCLA’s offense went stagnant, the Cardinal began to hit shots and the Bruins couldn’t stop the bleeding.
No. 3 UCLA (18-2, 7-2 Pac-10) watched the Stanford students rush the floor after falling to Stanford (14-5, 6-3) 75-68 before 7,334 screaming fans at Maples Pavilion.
“We let a golden opportunity slip today,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “We have to learn from it and get better.”
The Bruins, who have had trouble starting off games well for much of the season, had no such issue against Stanford.
Led by junior Arron Afflalo’s 17 first-half points, UCLA came out of the gates with a vengeance, dominating Stanford defensively and getting many easy transition baskets.
Afflalo was keeping pace with the Cardinal all by himself for most of the first half. The junior hit six of his seven shot attempts from the field, and had four rebounds and two assists by the end of the first 20 minutes of play.
The turning point of the game occurred in the last minute of the first half.
Little-used Stanford reserves Carlton Weatherby and Kenny Brown closed out the half with five points, taking advantage of poor UCLA decisions and lackadaisical defensive play. Howland was especially displeased with sophomore Darren Collison’s quick shot out of a UCLA timeout when the Bruins could have run more clock.
“To be up 15 and let them cut it to 12 with a wide-open shot because we just shot way too quick ““ it would have been better to have not even taken a shot and make them score with our defense in front of them,” Howland said.
Stanford was able to use the momentum gained at the end of the first half to come out in dominating fashion in the second half.
Behind strong efforts from Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, who finished with 22 and 20 points respectively, the Cardinal shot 70 percent in the second half and limited the
Bruins to 35 percent from the field.
“I thought our ball pressure wasn’t nearly as good in the second half as it was in the first half,” Howland said.
“That effort that we applied from the get-go definitely wasn’t there,” Afflalo said.
It was the Cardinal runs that really cost the Bruins in the second half.
Stanford used an 8-0 run from the end of the first half through the second half to cut the UCLA lead to single-digits.
Then, with the Bruins up 51-44 at the 10:20 mark, the Cardinal went on a quick and ultimately deadly 15-0 run in a span of four minutes, during which sophomore forwards
Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute both joined junior center Lorenzo Mata with their fourth fouls. All of a sudden, Stanford had completed a 25-point switch and led the game by eight points.
“That run that they went on lasted way too long,” Afflalo said. “That’s the game of basketball, it’s a game of runs, but theirs lasted entirely too long. We’ve got to find a way to put
that to a halt and bounce back.”
With the Cardinal up 70-60 and 1:46 remaining, the Bruins tried vigorously to come back, pressuring the ball and taking quick shots. UCLA cut the Cardinal lead to five twice in the final 1:02 of the game.
But the Bruins couldn’t make the most of opportunities to make it a one-possession game.
Collison gave a steal right back to the Cardinal with a bad pass and took a wild 3-point shot with the Bruins down five and 15 seconds remaining, instead of taking the ball to the basket or waiting for an open teammate.
“I take (the blame) for the last two minutes,” Collison said. “I made some decisions I shouldn’t have made, but we shouldn’t have let it get to that point. We lose intensity, we lose a 17-point lead, and things like that are going to start to happen.”
UP NEXT: With the Bay Area road trip behind them, the Bruins will now return to the comforts of Pauley Pavilion. When they get there, they will have a less-than-comforting opponent waiting for them.
This Thursday, UCLA hosts Oregon in a rematch of the Bruins’ first loss of the season when they fell to the Ducks 68-66 in Eugene, Ore.
The home stand continues with a Saturday game against Oregon State, followed up next week with a game against USC.
So far this season, and with five home games yet to play, the Bruins are undefeated when playing host.