It’s safe to assume the Bruins would have liked that broken rim delay to last a little longer.
UCLA men’s basketball (13-13, 6-7 Pac-12) entered the second half down just nine. But after a 35-minute delay to fix a loose rim before play started back up, Stanford (14-11, 7-6) opened up the frame with a 15-3 run to bury UCLA en route to a 104-80 victory.
With 14:46 left in the second half, Cardinal guard Daejon Davis lofted an alley-oop to forward KZ Okpala off an inbound to make it a 21-point game.
On the ensuing possession, sophomore guard Kris Wilkes airballed a corner 3. Eight and a half minutes later, redshirt freshman Cody Riley airballed a free throw, but the referees didn’t even bother blowing the whistle.
And with 4:51 left, redshirt junior guard Prince Ali airballed a wide-open transition 3 that would have made it a nine-point game again.
When the Bruins did cut the lead to single digits 30 seconds later, the Cardinal put together a 12-point run.
UCLA’s primary backcourt in the second half – sophomore guard Jaylen Hands and freshman guard Jules Bernard – combined for 48 points, seven rebounds and five steals on 14-of-21 shooting from the field, 4-of-8 from deep and 16-of-18 from the charity stripe.
Hands led all scorers with a career-high 29 points after he scored 27 in UCLA’s loss to Utah on Feb. 9, while Bernard registered a career-high 19 points and 27 minutes off the bench.
Freshman center Moses Brown has been the tallest player on the court for the majority of conference play, but Stanford boasted a 7-footer of its own Saturday night.
Cardinal center Josh Sharma picked up 22 points and 12 rebounds on 10-of-11 shooting. Brown – who entered the game shooting 65 percent from the field – picked up just seven points on 2-of-8 shooting.
The former five-star recruit had just two dunks for UCLA, while his counterpart flushed it seven times.
Wilkes finished with single-digit points for just the second time this season, scoring a season-low seven points on 2-of-11 shooting. The sophomore left the game in the first half after taking a Sharma elbow to the face, but he was able to return before halftime.
The Bruins’ defensive performance was their worst of the season, allowing a season-high 104 points to the same team they held to 70 points in interim coach Murry Bartow’s first game as head coach.
