TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; The Bruins nearly blew it again.
For the third time this season, the UCLA men’s basketball team squandered a second-half lead of 15 points or more, but the Bruins managed to recover in the nick of time against Arizona State to save their season.
The Bruins needed overtime and a lot more to squeeze past the conference bottom-feeder Sun Devils, 73-72, Saturday afternoon and escape Arizona with a weekend split.
Nonetheless, coach Ben Howland was happy to escape with a win.
“Every win is hard fought,” Howland said. “Every win that you get in the Pac-10 is a great win. Trust me.”
Howland’s team keeps proving that it can’t be trusted to hold a lead.
After displaying its best defensive half of the season ““ forcing the Sun Devils into shooting only 20 percent from the field ““ UCLA (14-7, 6-3 Pac-10) relented, allowing Arizona State (9-12, 1-8) to shoot 57 percent in the second half and climb back into the game.
Though the Sun Devils never led in the second half, they tied the game at 61 with 20 seconds remaining when Sun Devil guard Trent Lockett acrobatically tipped in a missed free throw.
But in overtime, the Bruins came out firing.
After sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt won the tip against ASU 7-foot-2-inch center Jordan Bachynski, UCLA wasted no time sealing the win.
Junior guards Lazeric Jones, Malcolm Lee and Jerime Anderson went a combined three-for-four from 3-point range to put the Bruins up seven with 2:58 to play, and they wouldn’t lose the lead after that. A last-second Arizona State 3-pointer made it a one-point game. But UCLA, which came away with its fifth win in the last six games, commanded the overtime period the entire way.
The problem, of course, was that the game went to overtime in the first place.
“We’ve got to expect the good with the bad,” Lee said. “It could be our youth, but these games are going to help us down the road.”
Lee was part of a balanced offensive attack that saw five Bruins score in double figures, but once again, Lee’s biggest contribution came on the defensive end.
Lee held Arizona’s State’s Ty Abbott to only eight points and zero in the first half. The Sun Devils’ leading scorer picked up a third foul midway through the first half and, as a result, played only 24 total minutes Saturday.
But Abbott, even with four fouls, was instrumental in guiding the Arizona State comeback. The guard hit two 3-pointers, none bigger than a fade-away NBA-range 3-pointer he nailed with under a minute to go. That bucket pulled Arizona State within one and helped the Sun Devils extend the game.
“Things like this are going to happen in road games,” Jones said. “Some calls are going to go their way, and they’re going to make big shots. We just have to stay composed.”
Though Howland admitted lapses in composure down the stretch ““ too much fouling and not enough boxing out ““ sophomore forward Reeves Nelson did not. He and the rest of the team chose to celebrate the win loudly in the locker room.
When asked if the game was frustrating in any way, Nelson responded tersely.
“Nope,” he said.
And when asked what the difference was between defense in the first and second half, Nelson said simply, “They scored more points than we did.”
The Bruins flew home Saturday night and now have to prepare for USC on Wednesday.
UCLA finished the first half of conference play 6-3 and sit at third place in the Pac-10.
“I’d like to be 9-0,” Howland said. “But we are what we are.”