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Bo Knows: UCLA basketball proves itself worthy despite loss to No. 7 Arizona

Sophomore guard Bryce Alford led UCLA’s scoring against Arizona, a game in which the Bruins showed much promise in limiting the Wildcats’ opportunities and falling by only 10 points. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Kevin Bowman

Feb. 25, 2015 2:44 a.m.

There are no As for effort in basketball.

No “close but no cigars.” The horseshoes and hand grenades rule of thumb is in full effect.

But what UCLA did against No. 7 Arizona Saturday deserves some sort of credit.

Despite the 57-47 loss, the Bruins hung with the Wildcats for most of the game and might have even outplayed them. If not for some severe foul trouble and a poor shooting night from everyone except sophomore guard Bryce Alford, UCLA could easily have won that game.

Of course those are two very serious problems if you’re trying to win, but the way in which UCLA gave Arizona so much trouble showed how well this team is capable of playing.

The Bruins’ defensive performance was perhaps their best of the season as they completely threw the Wildcats off their game, making them look far from one of the top-10 teams in the nation.

Stanley Johnson, who is widely considered a lottery pick in the 2015 NBA draft, managed to score just seven points on 1-9 shooting. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, also likely a first-round pick should he choose to declare for the NBA draft, was held to just two points on 1-6 shooting. Brandon Ashley, Arizona’s second-leading scorer coming into the game at 11.6 points per game, had only five points on 2-10 shooting.

Rather than the 37.6 points per game that those three combined to average coming into Saturday, UCLA held them to 14 points on a combined 4-25 shooting.

Arizona as a whole, which entered Saturday leading the Pac-12 with a 49.6 field goal percentage and were second in points scored at 76.3, was held to 34 percent shooting and 57 points.

If not for the 27 fouls UCLA committed, leading to 25 Arizona free throw attempts, UCLA would have won that game, a game in which everybody had written them off.

Then there were the two lockdown stretches to open both halves. Starting the first half, UCLA held Arizona scoreless for the first 6:05 and didn’t allow Arizona to score a field goal for the first 7:25.

The Bruins went on a 17-0 run to open the second half, holding the Wildcats without a point for another 6:51.

To put those stretches in context, when Kentucky went on its infamous 24-0 run to start the game against UCLA in December, the Bruins went 7:39 before they first scored. UCLA nearly did the same to Arizona Saturday. Twice.

Yes the Bruins lost the game, yes they were out-rebounded by 17 and yes they struggled offensively nearly as much as the Wildcats. Still, they made a good team look bad Saturday night and that’s progress for a UCLA team that had little else to be positive about last week.

After its significant struggles against No. 1 Kentucky and then-No. 5 North Carolina earlier this season, UCLA showed against Arizona that it is capable competing with the nation’s best teams.

But with the loss, whether the Bruins get a chance to prove so once again in the NCAA tournament remains to be seen.

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Kevin Bowman | Alumnus
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