TUCSON-
Ben Howland raced out onto the McKale Center court less than a minute into the second half, wearing a look of pure, unadulterated disgust.

He didn’t walk onto the court, he stomped onto it, equal parts frustrated and angry, and with good reason.

A five-point Arizona half-time lead turned into 10 in the first 40 seconds of the second half, and UCLA was on the ropes.

The Bruins swayed a bit, mustered a couple punches in return, but ultimately could not recover in an 85-74 loss that snaps a four-game winning streak.

“We were down five at the half, and then they score five unanswered to go up, and it was (Derrick Williams) both times,” Howland said. “Maybe I should’ve started Anthony Stover in the second half.”
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UCLA dropped a crucial Pac-10 game to the Wildcats, falling behind by as much as 18 – its largest deficit of the season – before eventually losing 85-74.

The Bruins defense was just awful at times against Arizona, which has won five-of-six. The offense might have been worse.

Aside from Reeves Nelson’s 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting, the Bruins made just 14-of-46 shots, including just 2-of-15 3-pointers.

Arizona, meanwhile, got 22 points from Derrick Williams, 17 from Lamont Jones and 14 from Kyle Fogg, who got into the lane with ease.

I’ll post my gamer later tonight.

Something tells me UCLA v. Arizona used to be a lot prettier.

The Bruins and Wildcats combined for 21 first-half turnovers in the first half as the Wildcats took a 38-33 lead into the locker room.

The lead would’ve been bigger if not for Reeves Nelson.

The lead would’ve been smaller, if not for Derrick Williams.

Nelson had 17 points and five rebounds in the first half and Williams had 12 to pace the Wildcats, but Arizona got nine points from guard Lamont Jones while Nelson got little help from his teammates.

Lazeric Jones and Tyler Honeycutt combined for just two first-half points, though Honeycutt had a game-high seven rebounds and Jones a game-high five assists.
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Check out the latest batch of weekly answers…
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McLEAN, Va. – UCLA has been ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches’ Preseason Poll, as announced on Thursday afternoon. Earlier that morning, the Bruins were listed No. 2 in Baseball America’s preseason top-25 poll.

UCLA was the runner-up to national champion South Carolina at last season’s College World Series. The Bruins went 51-17 overall, posting their highest single-season win total in school history.

The coaches’ poll features TCU, Florida, Vanderbilt and Clemson rounding out its top five selections, respectively. No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 TCU each collected nine first-place votes, while No. 3 Florida secured seven votes, No. 8 South Carolina tallied five and No. 4 Vanderbilt earned one. The remaining top 10 spots include, in order, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Cal State Fullerton and Oregon. UCLA defeated Florida once and TCU twice at the 2010 College World Series to advance to the best-of-three championship round.
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