Bruins hold off Colorado for sixth straight victory
Adem Bona’s high-flying dunks had the arena rocking early, but it was Sebastian Mack and Lazar Stefanovic’s strong play late that helped the UCLA men’s basketball team recover from blowing a 14-point, second-half lead and hold off Colorado for a 64-60 win on Thurs- day night at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins (14-11 overall, 9-5 Pac-12) won their sixth consecutive game and took over sole possession of third place in the Pac12, passing idle Oregon with their eighth win in nine games since starting the season 6-10.
Leading 63-60 with 17 seconds to go, UCLA’s defense held on by forcing Colorado senior forward Tristan da Silva into an off-balance layup try. UCLA was awarded possession of the ball after multiple players dove on the floor for the loose ball with 3.3 seconds to go. Stefanovic was fouled with 2.1 seconds remaining and made his second of two free throws, which iced the four-point victory.
“At the end of the day we got the job done,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “Obviously, this team has grown up a lot ... late in the game we got the job done on the defensive end.”
Mack, a freshman guard from Chicago, finished with a gamehigh 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Bona had 14 points
LOS ANGELES » THE SCORE
UCLA 64, COLORADO 60
Up next: Utah at UCLA, Sunday, 4 p.m., FS1
SUMMARY
COLORADO (16-9)
C.Williams 8-9 0-0 18, da Silva 6-11 1-2 16, Lampkin 5-7 2-2 12, Hadley 3-8 2-4 8, Simpson 1-7 1-2 4, Hammond 1-3 0-0 2, O’Brien 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-46 6-10 60.
UCLA (14-11)
Bona 5-9 4-5 14, Andrews 5-11 1-2 13, Mack 7-11 5-7 19, Stefanovic 2-5 1-2 6, B.Williams 1-4 1-2 4, McClendon 1-7 0-0 2, Buyuktuncel 2-5 0-0 4, Mara 1-2 0-0 2, Nwuba 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 12-18 64.
Halftime:
UCLA 38-29; Colorado 6-15 (da Silva 3-6, C.Williams 2-3, Simpson
1-3, O’Brien 0-1, Hammond 0-2), UCLA 4-12 (Andrews 2-3, Stefanovic 1-2, B.Williams 1-3, Mack 0-1, McClendon 0-3); Colorado 27 (Simpson 7), UCLA 26 (Bona 7);
Colorado 14 (Simpson 5), UCLA 8 (McClendon 3); Colorado 15, UCLA 12.
Total Fouls:
3-Point Goals: Rebounds:
Assists:
and seven rebounds, and sophomore guard Dylan Andrews added 13 points, eight in the first half.
UCLA opened the second half with five straight points for its largest lead of the game, but the Buffs worked to erase it. Colorado, which only played seven players, twice tied the score, first on a dunk by da Silva and then at 5454 on his 3-pointer.
“I told the guys we have to play offense,” Cronin said. “We can’t just start looking for the game to end.”
Mack (four) and Lazar Stefanovic (five) combined to score every point during a 9-2 run for the Bruins, who took a 63-56 lead with 2:11 left.
Online: For coverage of Thursday night’s late USCUtah men’s basketball game visit: OCREGISTER.COM/SPORTS
“Basketball is a game full of runs, so a team is going to go on their run, but at the same time we still have to stay poised and know that our run is coming soon,” Andrews said. “It’s a game full of runs. It’s going to happen but we have to make sure we’re all together on a string and get ready for the next possession.”
“I feel like a big part of that is we stayed together,” Mack added. “We didn’t hang out heads when were down and they came back on their run, but I feel like we came even closer and I feel like that’s why we were able to get the job done.”
Colorado senior center Eddie Lampkin Jr.’s layup made it 63-58 with 1:53 remaining, then freshman forward Cody Williams’ layup cut the margin to 63-60 with 52 seconds remaining.
KJ Simpson, a junior guard from nearby Chaminade High, blocked a Dylan Andrews jumper out of bounds, then with the shot clock running down, Stefanovic missed a desperation 3-point attempt in front of his own bench, which would have made it a twopossession game. Colorado called a timeout as UCLA held its 63-60 lead with 17 seconds left.
The Buffaloes (16-9, 7-7) have lost two in a row and four of five.