UCLA basketball bests ASU with aggressive shooting, defense

The buck didn’t just stop with Arizona State’s visit, it came to a screeching halt.

After dropping a 79-75 decision to No. 1 Arizona on Thursday that was full of white-knuckled intensity and emotion, UCLA men’s basketball fought off some early flatness and surged to a 17-point halftime lead before coasting to an 87-72 victory.

Playing their first Pac-12 Thursday-Sunday turnaround at home, the Bruins said they felt they had to get a win against the Sun Devils in order to prevent a significant standings deficit just two weeks into conference play.

“I definitely felt like we went out there and had to play like our backs were against the wall,” said sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson. “Dropping two at home is something that’s not going to help out in the wins-losses column, so we wanted to split this one at home.”

Freshman guard Zach LaVine led all UCLA scorers with 19 points, while Anderson added 17 points and finished just three assists shy of a triple-double. The Sun Devils opened up the game on a 12-6 run before being torched on a 35-9 UCLA counter that coincided with LaVine’s substitution into the game with just under five minutes gone.

The freshman had just nine points and took just nine shots in Thursday’s loss, but coach Steve Alford said he and his coaching staff made a point of telling LaVine to be more aggressive in the back end of the Bruins’ homestand.

“I told him, ‘When I tell you to be more patient, that doesn’t mean we don’t want you shooting the ball. We’ve got to have you shooting the ball,’” Alford said. “And he really got going in that first half.”

The message was received, loud and clear. At one point in the first half, LaVine scored 10 straight points for the Bruins. In just ten first-half minutes, he went 6-of-8 on field goal attempts, including a perfect 3-of-3 from long range.

“Sometimes it’s hard getting the flow, but today I was a little more aggressive,” LaVine said. “I took about 500 jumpers a day this week, so I knew my jumper was on.”

UCLA (13-3, 2-1 Pac-12) even had one of its best showings of the season on the glass, a category that junior guard Norman Powell said has been UCLA’s Achilles heel for the better part of two years. The Bruins held 7-foot-2 center Jordan Bachynski to just 8 rebounds and the entire Sun Devils squad to just 30 as they snagged 42 of their own.

The difference? According to Powell, just a little exertion.

“It’s all about effort,” Powell said. “Rebounding is effort and I feel like the last two games we gave great effort on the glass.”

But even with strong defensive showing on players like Arizona State (13-4, 2-2) point guard Jahii Carson, whom LaVine and Powell guarded to a season worst 4-of-17 shooting performance, the Bruins broke form in the second half, playing sloppy more than swift.

UCLA built its early lead on transition offense, aggressive-yet-smart defense and effective shot selection in the first half, but couldn’t muster much more offensive steam in the closing 20 minutes, as game breaks aplenty—a combined 27 personal fouls by the two squads—slowed things down dramatically.

“I thought our offense kind of affected our defense in the second half,” Alford said.  “We got a little bit careless, we didn’t move the ball like we usually move the ball, and I think that’s why our assists were down in the second half.”

Next on the schedule will be one of UCLA’s toughest road tests of the season, a Thursday-Saturday road trip at Colorado and Utah.