#UCLA guard #Lazeric Jones scores 26 points but misses the potential game-winner in the lane, blocked by Josh Huestis, with two seconds left as Stanford wins 60-59. UCLA made just 15 of 24 free throws and had 9 turnovers in the first half, cutting it to just two in the second half.
Every time the Bruins cut the lead to one or tied, Stanford answered.
Lazeric Jones scores 14 first-half points to help the Bruins cut the lead to 1 by halftime.
As reported earlier, Norman Powell and Lazeric Jones will play tonight. Both suffered left ankle sprains but returned to practice yesterday and participated in this morning’s shootaround and warmups just a while ago.
Game tips off at 8 p.m. here at Maples. Will update you at halftime and after the game. Hang in there as we’re on a tight deadline for the paper, too. You can also follow live updates at http://www.twitter.com/jillpainter.
And happy new year!
Kai Maiava, Randall Carroll, Aramide Olaniyan tweeted Sunday night about their displeasure over not receiving checks UCLA withheld for missing mandatory (this is up for debate) workouts and not turning in academic exit forms in time. Many players – even those that didn’t tweet about not receiving checks – said these workouts during finals week for bowl prep have always been voluntary.
Players tweeted about how they would be hungry because they didn’t have money, but a few hours later the issue was resolved.
“The last thing we want to do is to have anybody starve,” Mike Johnson said.
Coincidentally, UCLA is playing in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
Jeff Locke took to twitter to defend UCLA and said after practice Monday: “The way it was treated by some of the players in the media made us look bad. I don’t think they should’ve made the school look bad at all. The way it was put out by some players made it look a lot worse than it really was. I think it was handled fine. We might have messed up for a second, but in the end it’s all fine.”
Here is UCLA’s statement from Nick Ammazzalorso, director of athletic communications, regarding the checks that were withheld from some players:
“All of our players were advised that they would need to complete three of five workouts and submit academic exit forms prior to Sunday’s practice in order to receive their bowl checks. Those who did not complete their assignment had their checks withheld. The coaching staff changed its mind when they realized that withholding the money would cause the players some financial hardship.”