Men’s basketball heads north in hopes of season’s second win against Stanford

The Bruins have momentum.

Coming off a 75-67 overtime win against California on Wednesday night, UCLA men’s basketball (13-12, 6-6 Pac-12) will head to Palo Alto to take on Stanford (13-11, 6-6) on Saturday.

The Bruins and Cardinal are tied for sixth in the conference standings, with the Cardinal most recently overcoming a 14-point deficit in the first half to defeat the USC Trojans on Wednesday.

UCLA opened conference play this season against Stanford with a 92-70 win. Freshman center Moses Brown led the Bruins against the Cardinal with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while forward KZ Okpala recorded 22 points and 10 rebounds for Stanford. UCLA outshot Stanford 51.5 percent to 37.1 percent from the field.

Four of Stanford’s six Pac-12 wins since falling to UCLA have been against teams that UCLA has lost to – Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon State and USC. Stanford also went into overtime prior to the start of Pac-12 play against then-No. 2 Kansas but fell after some late 3-pointers.

The Cardinal have been led by center Josh Sharma – who ranks first in the conference with a 66.4 field goal percentage and leads the team with 6.7 rebounds per game. Okpala ranks fifth in the Pac-12 in points per game with 17.4.

Stanford and UCLA match up closely in points per game and field goal percentage, with the Cardinal averaging 72.4 points and shooting 46 percent from the field and the Bruins averaging 78 points and shooting 46.4 percent. Both teams shoot about 33 percent from behind the arc.

Sophomore guards Kris Wilkes and Jaylen Hands and freshman guard David Singleton each scored in double figures for the Bruins against the Golden Bears, with Wilkes recording a team-high 27 points and notching his third career double-double.

Okpala also recorded 18 points and grabbed three rebounds for the Cardinal against the Trojans.

UCLA and Stanford will tip off at Maples Pavilion on Saturday at 7 p.m.