Fighting to win, seeing defeat

EUGENE, Ore. “”mdash; After the Bruins’ heartbreaking 68-66
loss to Oregon, all of the players were down.

But nobody took the loss harder than Arron Afflalo.

The junior guard came out of the locker room despondent and was
almost to the point of tears while talking to reporters.

“I never thought I’d feel like this again in my
entire career,” Afflalo said. “I truly thought this
team couldn’t be beat. Not from a negative standpoint, but
the way we play, the type of heart we usually play with, the type
of leadership we have on this team; I wouldn’t say we were
invincible, but I didn’t think we could be beat.”

Afflalo struggled mightily in the first half against Oregon. He
was shut out offensively in the first half, missing his five shot
attempts, all of which were 3-pointers. And Afflalo, who is
normally a lockdown defensive player, was getting beaten by
Oregon’s guards.

“My game in the first half was disgusting,” he
said.

While many players may have been discouraged and down in
confidence after a first half like Afflalo had, Afflalo translated
his first-half frustration into determination for the rest of the
game. As poorly as he played in the first 20 minutes of the game,
the junior guard was much improved in the second half.

Afflalo came out of the locker room and quickly hit his first
two 3-pointers, which cut into the Bruins’ 10-point halftime
deficit. He finished the half shooting 5-7 and 4-6 from behind the
arc, scoring all 14 of his points in the second half.

Defensively, Afflalo and the rest of UCLA’s guards did a
much better job and kept Oregon’s backcourt from getting easy
baskets. Afflalo’s shooting and defense were perhaps the
biggest reasons that UCLA was capable of winning the game down the
stretch.

“I knew Arron would bounce back,” UCLA coach Ben
Howland said. “His shot in the first half was just flat. I
had confidence in him.”

But despite Afflalo’s best efforts in the second half, it
made him sick that the Bruins still fell short at the end of the
game. When Josh Shipp’s 3-pointer fell short in the final
seconds, Afflalo immediately felt the burden of the loss on his
shoulders. As the unquestionable leader on the court for the
Bruins, he felt helpless watching the ball go up in the air while
knowing he couldn’t affect whether it went in the hoop.

“That’s a mistake I’ll never make
again,” Afflalo said. “I don’t care how good or
bad I’ve been playing. I’m going to find a way to get
that ball at the end.

“It’s my duty to get that ball in the last
second.”

The end of the game gave Afflalo an emotional experience that
he’d like not to experience again, but one that he
won’t soon forget.

“This is probably my worst loss ever,” Afflalo said.
“I am going to do what I have to do to make sure I
don’t feel like this again.”