This is how McKale Center looked last season in the White Out game vs. Washington. Photo by Chris Morrison-USA Today Sports
For the second season in a row, Arizona’s White Out game ended in a loss.
UCLA buried the cold-shooting Cats early, building a 16-point first-half lead, and then held off Arizona to win 84-73 at McKale Center on Thursday night.
The Bruins, playing without starting forward Travis Wear in the second half because of concussion-like symptoms, had enough in reserve to answer every Arizona challenge. UA got within four points in the second half and trailed only 72-66 with 3:27 to play when Kevin Parrom made two free throws.
From there, UCLA converted most of its free throws and Arizona failed to hit key 3-point shots.
Shabazz Muhammad played with poise throughout, leading UCLA with 23 points on 8 of 16 shooting. Nick Johnson had 23 for Arizona. Solomon Hill had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The sixth-ranked Wildcats drop to 16-2 overall and 4-2 in the Pac-12, two games behind league-leading Oregon. UCLA is 15-5 and 6-1.
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Lyons fouls out with 1:12 to go. He has 16 points, five turnovers and no assists.
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Nick Johnson and Solomon Hill miss 3-point shots, but Arizona keeps the ball alive and Mark Lyons finishes with a layup to make it 78-70 UCLA with 1:16 to go.
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The window of opportunity is closing on Arizona. UCLA breaks the pass and gets a dunk from David Wear with 2:28 to go. Mark Lyons comes down and misses a quick 3-point attempt. Bruins lead 77-68 with 2:05 to go.
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UCLA shoots free throws at 72 percent. That will be big (or not) in the final three minutes.
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OK, it’s the last media timeout. Arizona has sliced the deficit to 70-64 with 3:47 to go. My prediction: This game will be tied with just about one minute left.
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Bad night for Mark Lyons continues. he turns the ball over up top to Shabazz Muhammad and then fouls the UCLA freshman on the fast break. That’s Lyons’ fourth foul. Muhammad makes both free throws for a 68-58 lead with 5:25 to go.
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Arizona went about 3 1/2 minutes without scoring, enduring that stretch that seems to come in every game in which its half-court offense bogs down. It didn’t hurt the Cats too much, and they recovered with two quick baskets, but Arizona went from 5 down to 7 down with 6:42 to go.
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David Wear misses two free throws with 10:44 to go to keep Arizona on a 10-0 run, but he gets UCLA back on the board on the next possession with a put-back.
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Remember this sequence: Mark Lyons drains a baseline 3-pointer, then Kevin Parrom steals a bounce pass in the lane and passes ahead to Nick Johnson for a super slam with 11:12 to go. Ben Howland calls timeout with UCLA up 55-51. McKale is rocking.
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Arizona hanging around, on a 5-0 run thanks to a three-point play by Nick Johnson and two free throws from Mark Lyons. UCLA leads 55-46 with 11:48 to play. There is still time for Lyons to turn around what has been an awful game so far. He plays with a chip on his shoulder but he’ll have no good answer for a skeptical national media if he doesn’t play well down the stretch.
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The one guy, more than any other, who has to play well for Arizona to win is Mark Lyons. He is 2 of 10 from the field and picked up his third foul with 14:56 to go.
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UCLA put together a 9-0 run spanning the first and second half to erase much of the good Arizona did to climb back from 16 points down. McKale is poised to go crazy if the Cats can get on a little run. Problem is, UCLA still getting too much easy offense. Bruins up 45-34 with 16:39 to go.
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UCLA won’t have starting big man Travis Wear in the second half because of concussion-like symptoms. Big loss for the not-deep Bruins, but they have already extended their lead to 44-30 early in the second half.
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UCLA had 10 fast-break points in the first half; Arizona had just two. Seemed like all of Arizona’s six turnovers were bad turnovers, happening up top and leading to easy points.
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Arizona was down 11 in the first half to Florida. Down 17 to Colorado. Down 16 to UCLA. Do comeback wins come in threes?
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UCLA led by as many as 16 points, with 13:11 to play in the first half, but Arizona cut that to five with a little over two minutes to go. The Bruins close the half on a 5-0 run, though, and take a 40-30 edge into the break.
Bad news: UCLA is shooting 55.9 percent. Arizona is shooting 31.4 percent. UA’s point guards are 2 of 8 from the field, with five turnovers and no assists. It probably could be worse than being down 10 points for Arizona.
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Mark Lyons lives for big games — that’s what he says — but he’s 2 of 7 so far with four turnovers and no assists as UCLA leads 37-30 with 1:27 to go before halftime.
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This game is moving at a fast-and-furious pace, with the Cats whittling the lead to 33-27 with 3:23 to go. Mark Lyons had Arizona’s first 3-pointer of the game with 4:30 to go, but the Cats are still just 10 of 33 from the field.
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Brandon Ashley has been very aggressive for the Wildcats on offense. His dunk off pa ass from Solomon Hill cuts UCLA lead to 27-20 with 6:06 to go in the half.
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Arizona is down 27-16 with 7:13 to go. No panic in the Cats, nor should there be. They are getting good shots; they’re just not going in right now. They have only three turnovers, which is a reasonable number at this stage, although all three have led to easy points for UCLA.
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Brandon Ashley takes it strong against Travis Wear, and draws Wear’s second foul with 9:53 to go in the half. Ashley makes both free throws to cut the lead to 21-11.
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The Cats have to get it back a little bit at a time. Nick Johnson drives for a crowd-pleasing dunk with 11:39 to go and then, after an Arizona steal, he finishes with a short jumper to cut UCLA’s lead to 21-9.
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Remember how top-ranked Duke was blown out by Miami this week? Sixth-ranked Arizona is headed in that direction, down 21-5 to UCLA. Shades of the Florida and Colorado games for slow-starting Arizona.
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Bruins push the lead to 17-3 with 13:57 to go in the half. Arizona has missed three (four?) layups but is getting decent shots. This is already a huge hole, though, against a talented team.
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Arizona: 1 of 10 form the field. UCLA: 7 of 10. Sean Miller was most concerned about UCLA’s ability to score fast from all positions.
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Arizona starts 1 of 8 from the field and trails UCLA 11-3 at the first media timeout. A sloppy turnover led to an easy fast-break dunk by Travis Wear. Solomon Hill has started out on Shabazz Muhammad, who scored UCLA’s first points on a 3-pointer.
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Via Twitter, I hear that ESPN’s Bill Walton calls McKale, “A magnificent temple for basketball.”
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Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports is covering the game. He tweets: “Arizona has a, um, seasoned fan base in the best lower-arena seats. Have to think the noise is going to have to come from elsewhere.” He’ll learn pretty quickly how loud and angry those folks can get.
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Even Wilbur wearing a white hat tonight.
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It’s the same starting lineup for Arizona. Will be interesting to see the matchups through the game on UCLA’s Kyle Anderson and Shabazz Muhammad.
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The white-clad Zona Zoo arrived early and filled up their seats at least an hour in advance of tip-off.
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Tonight’s Arizona-UCLA game will be visually stunning, thanks to the White Out, and should be one of the most entertaining games of the season.
Let’s get to it:
The Bruins lead the Pac-12 in scoring with 77.6 points per game and they take more shots than anyone in the league, too: 60.4. This isn’t the grind-it-out UCLA of recent seasons.
“Where they’re really good is on offense,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said.
“They’re pushing the ball faster. They get more in transition this year than they have in the previous three years that I have been at Arizona. They will push it on makes and misses. They have a number of players who thrive in transition.”
Point guard Larry Drew II is averaging 8.1 assists per game, third in the country. He has 154 assists and only 33 turnovers, leading the country with a ratio of 4.67 to 1.
“That’s an ungodly statistic right there,” Miller said.
“I think it shows that the players he passes to, all of them are capable of making plays and shots … The faster the ball is pushed in transition, the better they are. That’s my biggest concern.”
A fast-paced game suits Arizona’s sensibilities. The Cats aren’t a run-and-gun team, but they are better in the open court than in their half-court offense … and they’re deeper than UCLA, too.
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This will be the first time Arizona will play against UCLA freshman wing Shabazz Muhammad, arguably the nation’s top recruit last year. He is averaging 17.9 points per game.
Muhammad, who attended Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School, has plenty of experience against UA’s younger players, though. They have played with or against each in summer ball or on all-star teams, or in the case of Brandon Ashley and Nick Johnson, in high school.
Ashley and Johnson attended Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. TucsonCitizen.com’s Javier Morales covered the 2011 game between Findlay and Bishop Gorman, when Johnson defended against Muhammad all game.
“Shabazz is a warrior,” Miller said. “He plays like an older player, let’s the game come to him.”
Muhammad leads the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting (45.8 percent, 22 of 48).
“It’s scary,” Miller said of Muhammad’s shooting. “At one point, that wouldn’t have been something you said was his strength.”
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Arizona senior Kevin Parrom has been through two White Out games at McKale Center — both against Washington — but he said he hasn’t told the team’s freshmen anything about it.
“I want it to be a surprise,” Parrom said. “They have seen the crowd, but they haven’t experienced this. I just want them to go out there and see what it’s like.”
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Arizona-UCLA rivalry regaining its rightful place
Arizona’s edge vs. UCLA: Rebounding
Javier Morales at WildAboutAZCats.com has a large collection of pregame notes.
Bruce Pascoe, Arizona Daily Star: Tonight’s game is a hue-ge matchup
Steve Rivera, FoxSportsArizona.com: Tension high as Arizona, UCLA renew rivalry