March 11th, 2017

UCLA lost much of the momentum it built the last few weeks with Friday’s 86-75 loss to Arizona in Las Vegas.  The loss eliminated the Bruins from the Pac-12 tournament, and sent Wildcats to the finals of tournament on Saturday against Oregon.

Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points, Allonzo Trier added 20 to lead Arizona.  The Bruins shot just 40% from the field and 16% from 3.

Isaac Hamilton led UCLA with 20 points and TJ Leaf had 15 before fouling out.

The first half was a back and forth game, but the Wildcats had a late burst to take a 41-35 lead.

In the 2nd half, Arizona would extend the lead to 63-48, and had much of the crowd behind them.  The Bruins tried to make several runs, but couldn’t recover.

Lonzo Ball had an off night for the Bruins. He had just 8 points on 2-7 shooting.   He also injured his thumb in the 1st half, which appeared to bother him for the rest of the game.  Ball thought he would be fine though, especially after X-rays were negative.  “Nah, I’ll be all right,” he said.

It was also a tough night for both Steve and Bryce Alford.  Bryce had just 5 points on 2-12 shooting.

As for Steve, Arizona coach Sean Miller got some revenge on him from the last time the two team met.  Miller called an unnecessary timeout with one second left, and the game decided.  Miller was getting back at Alford for doing the same thing to him in Arizona last month.  

“I guess they’re upset I called a timeout at their place,” Alford said, referring to the end of UCLA’s 77-72 victory in Tucson two weeks ago when he wanted to set his defense with the Bruins ahead by five points. “I didn’t mean disrespect at all.”  

Miller felt otherwise.  “When UCLA played us at McKale, I thought they did a great job, they called a timeout with one second left just to make sure they had poise, and I felt like I wanted to make sure our guys had poise at one second left in this game.”

UCLA will find out Sunday what seed and region they end up in for the NCAA tournament next week.  However, their hopes of being a #1 seed in the West Region are gone after the loss.

Bryce Alford was disappointed but remained focused on what’s ahead.  “Our goal all year is to get to Phoenix and to compete for a national title,” he said. “So we’ve got a lot of work left to do and we have some time to figure out what we need to work on from this tournament.

March 9th, 2017

The Bruins came into the Pac-12 tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning 9 straight games.  However, they looked nothing like that team, despite barely getting by the Trojans 76-74 in their quarterfinal matchup.

UCLA shot just 41% from the floor, and lacked the consistent energy on the defensive end that they had shown in the last month.  Isaac Hamilton scored 22 points to lead the way for the Bruins, who stepped up when Lonzo Ball got into foul trouble.

Ball had 12 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds, but TJ Leaf helped do some damage in the paint in his return.  Leaf had 14 points and 5 rebounds.

UCLA will now play Arizona on Friday night in the Pac-12 tournament semifinal.  “We know we’re going to have to be better [Friday] night than we were tonight,” said UCLA Coach Steve Alford.  The Bruins can expect the Wildcats to have quite a few fans in attendance based on Friday’s turnout.

The Trojans only shot 38% from the field, and Chimezie Metu was held to just 8 points, although he did have 14 rebounds.  Bennie Boatwright scored 11 points, but was only 3 for 11 from the field.

“Even in a game where we were a little bit off, you look at the numbers and it was still pretty convincing that way,” Alford said. “It was only a two-point win, but it was tied for 20 seconds and we led the rest, so I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve had very, very few nights where we haven’t shot it well or scored in the 80s-plus and this was one of those nights and yet we find a way to get a win.”

The Bruins tried to pull away with a 12-0 run in the 2nd half, but the Trojans slowly fought back.  They even got within 71-69 with 4:23 left.

In the end, USC had their chances but failed to capitalize.  Boatwright missed a three-pointer that could have tied it with 37 seconds left.  Jordan McLaughlin and Elijah Stewart later missed layups that could have made it a one-point game.

Despite the loss, USC should still be in good shape for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament next week.  “You don’t get 24 wins if you’re not a good team,” USC Coach Andy Enfield said. “And I’m going to remind you, Bennie Boatwright was out 18 games. If we were on the East Coast, that’s all we’d be talking about. But because we’re on the West Coast, no one even mentions that.”