PALO ALTO –
Maybe all UCLA needed was a little quiet.
In a sparsely filled and nearly silent Maples Pavilion for much of the game’s 40 minutes, the Bruins relied on drastically improved long-range shooting to defeat Stanford on Thursday night, 69-65, their 10th win in 11 games and 16th in 19.
The Bruins, who had been shooting just 32.5 percent as a team from 3-point range, made nine-of-17 3-pointers for the game and six-of-11 in the first half to jump to a 36-29 halftime lead.
“We’re getting better; we’re 18-0 with a 10-point lead,” UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. “I know we’re great for television. This is a great team for TV ratings. And keeping the fans involved for the sponsors all the way till the very end. So I think we should get some accommodation for that.”
UCLA’s outside shooting made it appear that the Bruins would cruise to an easy victory in Palo Alto.
Par for the course, turnovers assured a rougher finish.
The Bruins committed 16 turnovers, including 11 in the first half, as Stanford kept it close. Late-game long-range shooting made it even closer, as Stanford guard Jeremy Green hit two crucial 3-pointers in the final minute to close UCLA’s lead to 66-62 with 1 minute, 10 seconds left.
But a Green turnover with 31.6 seconds left and three free-throws down the stretch by Reeves Nelson iced the game for the Bruins.
It was a surprising turn of events for UCLA – free throws icing the win – as the Bruins made just five-of-11 at one point as the Cardinal stayed in the game.
“We just have to do a better job at the foul line,” Howland said. “We missed some foul shots late in the game. I thought Reeves did a great job stepping up.”
With the Bruins leading 45-32 with 14 minutes, 48 seconds left, a mini-run by Stanford cut the UCLA lead to six once more, Jeremy Green doing much of the damage with two outside shots including a 3-pointer, but UCLA regained its offensive composure behind Nelson, Smith and Jones.
Nelson’s driving layup was followed by a Jones 3-pointer off a beautiful pass from Nelson, and then Smith went to work.
Smith had two offensive rebounds, drew a foul, made one-of-two free throws then came back on the defensive end and swatted a shot that led to a Nelson layup.
UCLA now led 57-41, its biggest lead of the game.
“We’ve played almost 30 games, played against a lot of teams we’ve already played, and bad teams will let runs affect them,” Smith said. “We already knew this was going to a game of runs. They made their run, and we had to just had to make our moves.”
Smith finished with 13 points, nine rebounds – including five offensive – two blocks and a steal, while Nelson added 18 points and seven rebounds, as the Bruins won the battle of the boards, 35-26. Sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt added 16 points but five turnovers and junior point guard Lazeric Jones had nine points, six rebounds and four assists.
“We had pretty balanced scoring tonight,” Nelson said. “We were shooting well in the first half, then in the second half they tried to focus on it, so it helped to have me and Josh and we just tried to go to work.”
The Bruins had particular trouble with Stanford’s Green on Thursday, as he exploded in the second half for 21 points, finishing with nine-of-16 shooting and five-of-eight 3-pointers. The Cardinal also got 15 points from guard Anthony Brown and 12 points from Josh Owens in losing their second straight game.
“Man, he’s such a great shooter,” Nelson said. “It’s crazy how you can say he’s a good shooter, and Malcolm ‘held’ him to 27. It was the same way with (BYU guard Jimmer Fredette); he just has such a good release. (Lee) tried to make things difficult for him, but with a person who’s that good of a player, sometimes you just have to accept it and try to do what you can to get ahead.”