This post was updated Feb. 16 at 11:09 p.m.
When the Bruins and Cardinal met for the first time back on Dec. 1, the blue and gold put the game away early.
But when the two teams met for a second time Thursday night, the matchup came down to the wire.
Coach Mick Cronin said trying to beat the same squad twice can test a team’s mental toughness.
“This is paranoia,” Cronin said. “Because your guys tend to think it’s going to be a little bit easier.”
No. 4 UCLA men’s basketball (22-4, 13-2 Pac-12) survived an upset bid from Stanford (11-15, 5-10) with a 73-64 win at Pauley Pavilion. Despite jumping out to a 17-0 start in their eventual blowout win in the first matchup against the Cardinal, the Bruins trailed for a majority of the game Thursday before outscoring the visitors 17-7 in the final 7 1/2 minutes.
After failing to score for the first 5:16 of the first contest in Palo Alto, Stanford came out clicking on all cylinders offensively and made six of its first seven shots to jump out to a 13-7 advantage.
Even after a 7-0 run from the blue and gold to regain a 16-15 lead, the Cardinal responded with a 9-0 run of their own to grab a 24-16 advantage and silence the Pauley Pavilion crowd.
Cronin said his team came into Thursday night’s contest overconfident.
“You get what you deserve,” Cronin said. “You think Stanford wasn’t going to come ready to play?”
Only five Bruins scored in the first half as the team shot 11-of-29 from the field. Junior guard Jaylen Clark, freshman forward Adem Bona and senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. combined for 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting, but the rest of the UCLA lineup was limited to five first-half points and shot just 14%.
Even with back-to-back jumpers from Jaquez in the final minute of the frame to complete his nine-point first half, the Bruins trailed the Cardinal 31-27 at halftime.
UCLA’s starting backcourt of redshirt senior Tyger Campbell and freshman Amari Bailey was held scoreless on a combined 0-of-7 shooting in the half.
And yet Cronin said it was Campbell and Bailey’s lack of defensive impact that caused him to bench them to begin the second half.
“I told him (Campbell) and Amari, I love ’em, but it would’ve been bad coaching to start ’em,” Cronin said. “Neither one of them had a deflection in the first half, which is almost impossible.”
But just minutes into the second half, the blue and gold used a lightning-quick run to ignite its fans.
With the starting backcourt on the bench and trailing 33-29, UCLA went on an 8-0 run in 38 seconds to force an early timeout from the visitors. After freshman guard Dylan Andrews began the run with a blowby and-one layup, Clark followed a 3-pointer from fifth-year guard David Singleton with a quick steal and slam that caused the crowd in Westwood to explode.
And yet, with all the momentum suddenly against it, Stanford used an even larger second-half spurt to regain control of the game.
After a Jaquez layup put the Bruins up by seven with just over 15 minutes to play, the Cardinal went on a staggering 12-0 run in three minutes to grab back a 50-45 lead. Guard Michael Jones drilled one of his three 3-pointers on the night before scoring nearly identical layups on the same backdoor screen to help ignite the run.
Following the Cardinal run, Jaquez continued to put the Bruins’ offense on his back with three straight jumpers and a pair of free throws to cut Stanford’s advantage to one. The two charity-stripe makes completed a 7:39 stretch in which Jaquez scored 13 straight points for the Bruins.
Jaquez said he’s making it a point to be more aggressive in the closing moments of his final season.
“I only got so many games left, so I’m going to go down swinging,” Jaquez said. “I know my guys trust in me. I know my coach trusts in me. When they put the ball in my hands, I’m just ready to make a play. I’m just ready to do whatever the team needs to win.”
While Jaquez and his 26 points kept UCLA in it, his supporting cast helped put the game away in the clutch.
The Bruins held the Cardinal to seven points over the final 7:30 behind an elite defensive display. Stanford shot just 3-of-10 during the closing stretch and turned the ball over four times during the stretch.
Despite the up-and-down performance, UCLA’s win brings it within four victories of clinching a Pac-12 regular-season title.
But Singleton said Thursday’s tight victory proves the Bruins can’t focus on that just yet.
“I feel like it’s still too early to pay attention to March right now,” Singleton said. “We obviously know it’s coming around. … After tonight, we definitely have to take it game by game.”
