Tyler Lamb - Photo courtesy of Adam Kazmierski
Scott Robinson
The last time UCLA was featured on CBS, they faltered to an all-freshmen starting five in St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. Today, UCLA (16-13) dropped another road game under CBS’ national spotlight in front of the hostile crowd at the McKale Center. With the win, 65-63, the surging Arizona Wildcats (21-9) have now won six of their last seven.
A sloppy first few minutes, the Bruins took an early 12-10 lead with 11:00 left in the first. Back and forth through-out the opening half, UCLA had four straight turnovers in a span of six possessions. To make matters worse, even without getting the start, Josh Smith had picked up his third foul by the 6:00 mark in the first half. With Smith stymied by a more athletic Wildcat team, a couple of Bruins stepped up and should be credited for their efforts in keeping it close: Jerime Anderson and Travis Wear. Had it not been for that tandem’s first half performance (T. Wear’s nine points, six rebounds and Anderson’s 10 points, three rebounds), the game could have quickly gotten out of hand.
Although averaging only 11.9 turnovers a game, UCLA had already committed nine by the last minutes of the first. Staying in it up to the half was key in helping UCLA work through Smith’s foul trouble. A continued close game, UCLA and Arizona traded leads through the opening minutes of the second half. With 10:35 to go, UCLA finally hit their first three-pointer. A quick steal by Lamb followed by a lay-up by Anderson pushed the Bruin lead to six. Arizona answered quickly, closing it to 45-44 with 8:42 to go. A deep uncalled bank thudded in at the turn of the shot clock, giving Lamb his second three and UCLA a four point lead with six to go.
Despite a nice rebound and lay-up sequence by Smith, Arizona took back the lead, 54-53, with 3:52 left in the game. The Wildcat lead was pushed to five after Arizona’s Jesse Perry and Solomon Hill put up a couple baskets, making it 60-55 at the 2:00 mark. With under a minute to play, Smith was brought back to the line to make it 63-61, Arizona. Then, with 12.6 seconds left, UCLA was kept in the game after three of four missed free throws by the Wildcats. Consecutive fouls gave the Bruins the bonus with 9.0 seconds left. Two free-throws by Anderson put it back to a one-point game. After a forced foul, Kyle Fogg missed another free throw—Giving Anderson 7.9 seconds to drive and eventually miss a potential game-tying jumper as time expired. A close game through and through, including over 11 lead changes, it came down the final possession.
