STANFORD “”mdash; UCLA trails Stanford at the half here at Maples Pavilion, 24-23, but the Bruins have slowly climbed back into the game thanks to another mid-game switch to a zone defense.
UCLA coach Ben Howland switched away from man-to-man less than six minutes into the game with UCLA trailing by seven. The Bruins got their stops, but struggled to rebound defensively, giving up eight offensive boards in the half.
Stanford led by as much as 11 before UCLA turned up the pressure. The Bruins stole four Cardinal passes and blocked two shots in the half that keyed fast breaks but had spotty success in transition.
One of the thefts was by senior guard Lazeric Jones, who went on a mini-run himself and accounts for half of the Bruins’ tally. Jones had seven straight Bruin points in one stretch, capped by a step-back jumper in front of the Stanford bench.
Jones leads UCLA with 14 points, and no other Bruin has more than four. Of note, sophomore center Joshua Smith, redshirt sophomore forward Travis Wear and senior guard Jerime Anderson each has two fouls at the break.