With sophomore forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute inactive, UCLA faced a defensive dilemma against Arizona.
Who was going to guard Marcus Williams? The 6-foot-7-inch sophomore forward for the Wildcats came into Saturday’s game leading the Pac-10 in scoring at 18.5 points per game and was averaging 22 points per game in conference play.
UCLA coach Ben Howland decided to turn to 6-foot-5-inch junior guard Arron Afflalo to man up against Williams. Afflalo responded by playing one of his best games of the season, limiting Williams’ production while scoring 22 points of his own against Arizona’s zone defense.
Williams had just 11 points on 4-12 shooting and turned the ball over four times against Afflalo.
“I thought Arron Afflalo played great defense on Marcus,” Howland said. “We had originally talked about matching up our 4-man (against Williams), but he’s their leading scorer. … I thought it was critical that we put our best on-ball defender on him.”
Before coming into Pauley Pavilion, Williams’ previous low for points in a conference game this season was 18 against Washington State. But against Afflalo, Williams struggled for every look he took and was visibly frustrated throughout the game.
“I like taking that challenge and seeing if I could hold him down,” Afflalo said. “He’s a good player with his height and his versatility. … My idea was just to keep his percentages down.”
One of the things spurring Afflalo on both ends of the court was the fact that his shot was clicking early in the game.
Afflalo has had a tendency to struggle with his shot in the first half of games this season while turning up the heat in the second half.
But against Arizona, Afflalo hit his first three shots of the game, which got him going early on both ends of the floor.
“I’m one of those guys where it may be a bad thing, but when I’m scoring, I’m better,” Afflalo said. “Now I just have to figure out how when I’m not scoring to still play at that high level.”
The one surprising weakness in Afflalo’s game against Arizona was his free-throw shooting. Afflalo entered the game shooting more than 80 percent from the line, but the guard went just 1-5 on Saturday. Afflalo missed both of his “and-one” attempts in the game after scoring while being fouled. He also missed a critical front end of a one-and-one that allowed the Wildcats to get back into the game as time was winding down.
“Free throws are focus,” Afflalo said. “You have to be mentally focused and I guess I just didn’t have it. I’ll get it back though. Soon.”