PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Starting junior
forward Matt Barnes pulls up for a shot during
UCLA’s 85-79 loss to Stanford. Barnes scored a career high 32
points and grabbed eight rebounds on Senior Day at Pauley.
Stanford 85 UCLA 79
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Everything was magical about Saturday afternoon in Pauley
Pavilion.
UCLA senior point guards Earl Watson, Ryan Bailey and Jason
Flowers were given a warm send-off by the Bruin faithful on Senior
Day.
The electrified crowd lit the home court brighter than ever
before.
And the Pac-10 Conference title happened to be on the line.
But the Stanford Cardinal (27-1, 15-1 Pac-10), the
country’s consensus No. 1, avenged its only loss of the
season and outlasted No. 12 UCLA (20-7, 13-3) by the final score of
85-79. The victory ended the Bruins’ eight game winning
streak.
“It’s very disappointing,” said UCLA junior
forward Matt Barnes, who scored a career-high 32 points to go along
with eight rebounds. “We had a chance to win the Pac-10 and
send Earl out with a win. We had to work too hard to come back.
When we came back, they just kept going.”
“We need five guys, plus the bench and the coaches,”
he added. “No two guys can beat five.”
All five Stanford starters scored in double figures. But it
seemed the size advantage ““ specifically of twins Jarron
(6-foot-11) and Jason Collins (7-feet) ““ and early foul
trouble for Bruin junior center Dan Gadzuric might have decided the
final outcome. The Cardinal outrebounded UCLA by a convincing
margin of 40-27.
“I think the key to the game was rebounding,” UCLA
Head Coach Steve Lavin said. “Their size, strength and
physical play inside allowed them to dominate the
boards.”
There is still little reason for the Bruins to hang their heads
over their final home game of the season. They shot 51 percent from
the field, committed a season-low seven turnovers to
Stanford’s 14, and got seven blocks and seven steals in the
contest.
However, the Bruins were faced with a tighter defense on the
perimeter that handcuffed UCLA’s two outside guns, Jason
Kapono and Billy Knight. Sophomore forward Kapono finished with
just eight points and missed all four three-point shots, while
Knight, a junior guard, had six points and missed both of his
long-range attempts.
“We knew the priorities this time ““ Earl Watson
being first, and Jason Kapono being second,” said Cardinal
Head Coach Mike Montgomery, whose team must at least split against
the Arizona schools at home to claim the Pac-10 title outright.
“We didn’t watch them enough last time and we
overcommitted to help. They made wide-open shots. We didn’t
let them do that this time.”
The NCAA Tournament-like atmosphere was upstaged by the final
home appearance of UCLA’s iron-man Earl Watson. In the senior
co-captain’s 124th consecutive start, he received numerous
standing ovations while the crowd chanted his name in
appreciation.
“I just blocked out the emotion before the game so I could
concentrate on what I had to do,” Watson said. “For me,
the Pac-10 championship was more important than Senior Day.
That’s how I’ve always felt.”
Watson finished with 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting and was 3 of
6 from downtown. He also dished out five assists and had three
steals to bring his career total to 226, breaking the school record
of 224 previously held by Tyus Edney (1992-95).
But the reality of UCLA losing four straight contests to
Stanford in Pauley Pavilion is a tough pill for Watson to
swallow.
“You have to understand, it’s been really stressful
and draining,” he said. “This puts us back on the same
page. It happened to Stanford and put them there. We played hard,
but we didn’t play as a team.”
After the initial seesaw battle in the game’s first six
minutes, Stanford put together 15 unanswered points to hold a 28-18
advantage with less than nine minutes left in the first half.
UCLA popped Stanford’s bubble with a 14-5 run to bring the
Bruins within one at 33-32.
But the Cardinal went into halftime with a 45-40 lead on 61
percent shooting from the field and a 23-10 rebounding margin. The
Bruins shot 51 percent in the first half and had only one
turnover.
“That’s the best team we’ve faced all
season,” Lavin said. “I’ve never seen them play
better. We punched and they counter-punched. They just came out on
top.”
UCLA was continually in striking distance in the second frame,
matching the Cardinal’s execution and intensity. But the
turning point was when Stanford sophomore guard Casey Jacobsen
slashed to the basket from the left wing, drew contact and
converted the three-point play. The Cardinal moved ahead 65-55 with
11:10 remaining.
In the three minutes that bookended the play, UCLA managed to
shoot 1 for 9. Meanwhile, Stanford was 7 for 11.
“We never made that late, last surge,” Kapono said.
“We always felt we were down and they kept scoring on us. We
didn’t play strong defense.”
With the Collins twins and Jacobsen scoring 16 points apiece, it
was senior forward Ryan Mendez’s 10 for 10 free throw clip in
the game’s final three minutes that sealed UCLA’s fate
on Saturday.Â
“They were extremely sharp in all aspects of the
game,” Lavin said. “I don’t think this was a
situation where we played poorly. It’s one of those games
where you can’t feel sorry for yourself. I’m very proud
of our team and how our seniors represented us.”