The good news for UCLA: Ben Howland did not cancel Christmas.
But Howland’s players feared he would have, had the Bruins not outlasted UC Irvine on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.
Two days after the Bruins needed a second-half surge to come from behind to defeat Montana State at Pauley Pavilion, UCLA eked out another win on its home court, defeating the Anteaters, 74-73, after watching a 15-point lead disappear.
The Bruins picked up their fifth-straight win but needed every last second to seal it, poor free-throw shooting down the stretch nearly proving deadly.
UCLA missed six-of-eight free throws in the final minute after the Anteaters crept back into the game, and the final miss almost sealed the Bruins’ fate.
After UC Irvine guard Darren Moore banked in a 3-pointer with eight seconds left to cut UCLA’s lead to one, freshman guard Tyler Lamb got the inbound pass and was immediately fouled.
He narrowly missed the first free throw and the second attempt caromed into the arms of Moore who sprinted down the court with the ball but was trapped in the corner, unable to get a shot off.
“That wasn’t an easy game,” Howland said. “Hopefully we learn from these experiences, we get up there and make our foul shots. If those guys step up down the stretch, we’re not coming down to the last second with them having the ball.”
It was just about the only Bruin’ stop in crunch time, as the team severely missed the services of leading scorer and rebounder Tyler Honeycutt.
To the rescue, the Bruin backcourt.
Junior guards Malcolm Lee and Lazeric Jones each scored 20 points, a season-high for Jones, with Lee exploding in the first half.
Lee was 7-of-12 shooting, hitting 4-of-8 3-pointers, as he got hot early against UC Irvine, which started off in man-to-man defense before switching to a zone after the Bruins got hot.
Lee had 14 first-half points before UCLA headed into the locker room, leading the team in scoring for the second straight game, after scoring 18 in the team’s 75-59 win over the Bobcats on Tuesday.
“The zone just slowed down everybody,” Lee said. “When they were in man, it was a lot more fluid. I noticed about their zone, the difference between them and Montana State, they’re zone was a lot more compact. A lot of times when our big guys got it, they couldn’t turn or do anything. There weren’t a lot of driving gaps.”
UCLA guards were not able to do work in the lane, so they had to instead look outside.
The Bruins hit 10-of-20 3-pointers – four each for Lee and Jones – but the team’s biggest offensive play on Thursday might just have come from another guard.
With 7 minutes, 36 seconds left in the game, backup point guard Jerime Anderson found an opening on the right corner and buried a three right after UC Irvine cut the Bruins’ lead to five at 63-58, the closest margin since just over three minutes into the game.
In what is becoming a familiar refrain, the Bruins said after the game that they took the Anteaters lightly.
UCLA was sloppy on offense, committing 17 turnovers, and sloppier on defense, letting UC Irvine hit from all angles, four Anteaters scoring in double-figures.
“With this game, we had our opportunities, we had the lead, the only thing it came to, they played harder than we did,” said freshman center Joshua Smith, who had 14 points and eight rebounds. “They just went for the loose balls, executed, got and-ones. We were fortunate to get the win.”
Fortunate to get the win in their last tune-up before Pac-10 play begins next Thursday against Washington State at Pauley Pavilion.
Fortunate to get the win, and fortunate to get Christmas.
“It would’ve been an absolutely horrible Christmas around the Howland household had we lost this game,” Howland said.