LOS ANGELES — Drama in Hollywood is to be expected, and Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion proved to be no different.
Bruins guard Bryce Alford hit the go ahead 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded to give UCLA the upset over the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats in front of a packed house in Los Angeles on Russell Westbrook night.
Alford led all scorers with 25 points, shooting 9-18 from the field and 5-11 from downtown as the Bruins (10-6, 1-2 Pac-12 Conference) completed the upset. Aaron Holiday added 15 points and Tony Parker and Isaac Hamilton each had 14 for the Bruins.
“We broke down from start to finish [defensively],” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. “Our team is terrible on defense. Terrible. We have too many people on our team right now who pick and choose when they are supposed to do things.”
UCLA led by as many as 14 early in the second half, but the Wildcats were able to climb back into the game in the final minutes.
Down 10 with three minutes to go in the game, Arizona found a jolt off a Kaleb Tarczewski dunk, a 3-pointer from Allonzo Trier and another dunk from Kadeem Allen to pull within three points of the Bruins with just over a minute to play.
After a missed 3-point attempt from Alford, Allen took the ball all the way down the court and made a layup while being fouled by UCLA big man Thomas Welsh. Allen made the free throw, tying the game at 83.
“I’m really, really proud of our team’s fight,” Miller said. ”There’s a lot teams that would have mailed it in.”
With 21 seconds to play, Hamilton was fouled but made only one of his two free throws. Arizona came back down the other end, running a set play for Ryan Anderson out of a timeout. Anderson also made only one free throw, giving the Bruins the ball with 10 seconds remaining.
The Bruins ran the play for Alford, who stepped back from the right side of the three point line and knocked down the three.
Game. Set. Match.
Anderson finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Wildcats (13-2, 1-1) who played comeback all game at Pauley. Trier added 13 and Tarczewski had 12 off of the bench, which earned him his 1,000th point in his college career.
The Bruins came out of the gates firing in the second half, knocking down nine of their first 15 shots in the half. UCLA finished with 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep.
Arizona shot 45 percent from the field and only 35 percent from 3-point range. The Bruins dominated the Wildcats in the assist category, 21-11, while the Wildcats won the rebound battle (40-33), second chance points (22-6) and bench points (33-13).
Both teams started off the game slowly with scoring, with the Bruins only leading 12-6 after the first seven minutes of play. The Wildcats continuously had to climb back into the game as they played most of the game from behind.
A Parker Jackson-Cartwright 3-pointer gave Arizona its first and only lead which was short lived as Bryce Alford came back with a 3 of his own.
UCLA led by as many as eight points in the first half, after baskets from Parker, Noah Allen and Alford. However the Wildcats continued to climb back with scores from Trier, Dusan Ristic, Tarczewski and a 3 from Jackson-Cartwright. UCLA ended the half with two three pointers from Bryce Alford.
Arizona will take on the USC Trojans Saturday night at the Galen Center in Los Angeles at 4 p.m.
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