UCLA Basketball: The Bruins Lose A Close One To Arizona In The Pac-12 Semifinals

By Matt Wagner | Mar 13, 2015

Following a rout over USC yesterday, UCLA came into their matchup against Arizona basically needing a victory or all NCAA Tournament hopes would most likely be dashed.

The game started out extremely ugly for UCLA, as they could not stop Arizona offensively, and the Wildcats’ smothering defense made it nearly impossible to get a good shot off.

That led to an 11-2 deficit in the first eight minutes for the Bruins, but then they started to turn things around. After Thursday’s superstar Isaac Hamilton and bruising big man Tony Parker got into early foul trouble, Thomas Welsh and “Super Sub” Gyorgy Goloman came in and filled in their roles nicely.

Thanks to Goloman‘s defensive prowess, Welsh‘s rebounding efforts, as well as a much needed late push from Norman Powell and Bryce Alford, the Bruins headed into halftime tied with Arizona, despite the fact that they played below average for much of that first half.

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The Bruins came out of the halftime ready to finish off the Wildcats, and largely due to Powell‘s heroic efforts both in rebounding and scoring, UCLA held a seven-point lead with 12:04 remaining.

Unfortunately, that’s where everything went south.

Arizona went on a 13-0 run to put UCLA in a six-point hole with 7:50 left and the Bruins weren’t ever able to get momentum again.

Aside from a very late push from Powell and Kevon Looney, they never showed much substance for the rest of the game.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena seemed to transform into the McKale Center before UCLA‘s eyes, and the Bruins’ hopes of getting an NCAA Tournament bid come this Sunday seemingly went by the wayside with the loss.

UCLA may still sneak their way into the tournament, although it would probably require at the least for all other bubble teams to lose before this weekend ends.

The Bruins definitely had a shaky season, and with only two quality wins over current #17 Utah and Oregon on the year, UCLA is surely on less than stable footing heading into Selection Sunday.

Here’s hoping they gets into the field, however, with this loss tonight, the odds of that happening are very slim to none at this juncture.