TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; A telling sigh escaped Ben Howland’s
lips as he stood in a sterile hallway beneath the McKale Center
amid a horde of reporters, each awaiting his observations from
UCLA’s latest loss.
But there really wasn’t much Howland could say. His Bruins
had played stretches of near-perfect basketball. They withstood
nearly every Arizona onslaught. They rallied. They persevered.
And still they lost by 24 points.
“That’s a credit to Arizona,” Howland said
following the Wildcats’ 107-83 victory Saturday afternoon.
“I can’t remember ever shooting 66 percent and losing a
game by that much.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when Arizona (16-6, 8-5
Pac-10) eclipsed UCLA (10-11, 6-7) as the West Coast’s
preeminent basketball program, but the latest match-up between the
two schools further illustrated just how wide the disparity has
become.
Torrid shooting and a rare display of gumption from the Bruins
proved no match for the No. 16 Wildcats’ athleticism and
relentless full court pressure as UCLA fell for the eighth time in
nine games.
The Bruins did shave an 11-point halftime deficit to six early
in the second half, but a season-high 28 turnovers derailed
UCLA’s comeback hopes. Arizona’s gambling defense and
superior speed forced the Bruins to make poor decisions with the
basketball and fueled a late offensive onslaught that sealed the
victory.
“Their pressure sped us up,” UCLA freshman forward
Trevor Ariza said. “We got out of control and started doing
things we normally wouldn’t do.”
A high-octane, fast-paced tempo certainly favored the
freewheeling Wildcats, yet the Bruins seemed to be content to play
that style of basketball from the onset. Arizona dictated the flow
of the game, amassing 35 points by the eight-minute mark of the
first half and a season-high 57 by halftime.
Salim Stoudamire led the way for the Wildcats with a game-high
34 points on 13-for-17 shooting.
“They score in bunches,” junior guard Dijon Thompson
said. “It’s easy for them to get 10 points in the blink
of an eye.”
Confusion among the UCLA players over how to contend with the
Wildcat pressure helped facilitate Arizona’s high-powered
attack.
Howland utilized a smaller lineup, sliding Ariza to power
forward and shifting the other starters’ positions in the
press break. Although this move did put an extra ball handler on
the court, it also flustered the rest of the Bruins, who repeatedly
were out of position in the first half.
“Most guys are used to playing one position, so when
Trevor has to move down to the four (position), it’s hard to
remember where to go,” Thompson said.
Bruin ball handling miscues proved to be the only catalyst
Arizona needed.
Although All-American candidate Channing Frye played just 15
minutes due to foul trouble, 50 points off UCLA turnovers helped
the Wildcats offset the lack of a legitimate post presence.
Guards Stoudamire and Chris Rodgers helped pick up the slack
from the perimeter, canning 11 three-pointers between them.
Rodgers buried a pair of shots from behind the arc during a 10-0
Arizona run to close the first half after UCLA had cut the Wildcat
lead to a single point.
Stoudamire, who hit seven of nine shots from behind the arc,
couldn’t help but chuckle when he found himself all alone in
the right corner on his seventh three-pointer of the night.
“That’s why I was laughing at the end,”
Stoudamire said. “Why leave me open? But they did it, and I
took advantage of it.”
UCLA trailed 33-17 midway through the first half, but Thompson
helped fuel a Bruin rally, tallying 16 of his team-high 20 points
before halftime.
Ariza (with 14 points), Cedric Bozeman (13), and T.J. Cummings
(17) all scored in double-digits for the Bruins, who made 33 of
their 50 shots from the field.
Arizona’s 107 points were the most scored against the
Bruins since Feb. 22, 1998, when Duke defeated UCLA 120-84.