National Basketball Association
UCLA 77, Washington St. 68
When: 10:15 PM ET, Saturday, March 4, 2017
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, California
Officials:
# Gregory Nixon, # Glenn Mayberry, # Rick Batsell
Attendance:
13659
By The Sports Xchange
Aaron Holiday came off the bench to lead a second-half surge for shorthanded UCLA, helping the third-ranked Bruins end the regular season with a 77-68 victory over Washington State in a Pac-12 Conference game Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
Holiday scored 16 points for UCLA (28-3, 15-3 Pac-12), which placed third in the Pac-12, a half-game behind Oregon and Arizona. The Bruins will have to beat both teams to win next week's conference tournament.
Isaac Hamilton scored 14 points for UCLA. Thomas Welsh posted 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Bryce Alford scored 13 points and made two 3-pointers to tie Jason Kapono's school record of 317 career 3-point goals. He had a tearful moment with his father, UCLA coach Steve Alford, when UCLA honored its seniors before the game.
"Nobody really warned me it was going to be like that," Bryce Alford told the Orange County Register. "The amount of emotion kind of drains you before the game and it's hard to refocus."
Lonzo Ball finished with 12 points and a career-high 14 assists, breaking Gary Payton's Pac-12 freshman record for single-season assists.
Freshman forward TJ Leaf was held out of the game with an ankle injury. Leaf, who will be critical to the Bruins' hopes of winning their first national championship since 1995, leads the team in rebounding and ranks second in scoring.
Leaf hopes to return for the Pac-12 tournament after spraining his left ankle in UCLA's victory over Washington on Wednesday. The Bruins will play in the conference quarterfinals Thursday.
Charles Callison scored 25 points for Washington State (13-17, 6-12). Josh Hawkinson posted 16 points and 14 rebounds to become the school's all-time rebounding leader. Ike Iroegbu added 10 points.
UCLA was clinging to a one-point lead at the break and trailed by three following a 3-pointer by Callison with 12:47 to play in the second half. That's when the Bruins finally took control, mounting a 20-4 run to take a 64-51 lead on a jumper by Holiday.
The Bruins went up 72-58 on a three-point play by Alford. They led by as many as 16 in the final minutes.
The Cougars kept the game close throughout the first half. They took a 7-5 lead on a dunk by Conor Clifford. The score was tied when Holiday made a 3-pointer to spark an 8-0 run that put the Bruins up 24-16 midway through the opening period.
Washington State battled back to cut the deficit to four on a jumper by Viont'e Daniels. UCLA re-established an eight-point lead on a dunk by Welsh and went up by nine on a 3-pointer by Alford, but Washington State stormed back again to cut the Bruins' lead to one on a 3-pointer by Hawkinson with 59 seconds remaining.
UCLA, which led the nation in scoring and field-goal percentage going into the game, did not shoot the ball particularly well. The Bruins shot 44.3 percent from the field, made just 7 of 20 from 3-point range and converted 16 of 21 free-throw opportunities.
Washington State shot 41.5 percent and made 9 of 27 from long distance. The Cougars went to the free-throw line just seven times.
"We should have won this game," Washington State coach Ernie Kent told The Spokesman-Review. "We missed a lot, and I mean a lot, of wide-open shots."
NOTES: Freshman PG Lonzo Ball has been named one of 15 finalists for the John R. Wooden Award, which is presented annually to the nation's best college basketball player. ... UCLA honored its 1966-67 NCAA championship team during a halftime ceremony. The Bruins went 30-0 that season to win their third title in four years. ... Washington State was vying for its first win over a ranked team since beating then-No. 25 UCLA on Jan. 3, 2016.
Top Game Performances
| Washington St. |
|
UCLA |
|
Charles Callison 25 |
Scoring |
Aaron Holiday 16 |
|
Charles Callison 5 |
Assists |
Lonzo Ball 14 |
|
Josh Hawkinson 14 |
Rebounds |
Thomas Welsh 11 |
|
Ike Iroegbu 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Isaac Hamilton 5 |
|
Malachi Flynn 3 |
Steals |
Lonzo Ball 3 |
|
Robert Franks 1 |
Blocks |
Ike Anigbogu 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Washington St.
|
68 |
41.5 |
9-27 |
5-7 |
14 |
34 |
2 |
5 |
12 |
| UCLA
|
77 |
44.3 |
7-20 |
16-21 |
22 |
35 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
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