UCLA Basketball: Bruins Show Immense Fight in Come-From-Behind Road Victory Over ASU
Don't look now, but Mick Cronin's team is showing some signs of life.
After losing by a whopping 46 points on the road against Utah last week, many wondered whether that monumental defeat would indeed crater the rest of the season for these baby Bruins.
Mental fragility exists with all college athletes, particularly when your team is coming off a stretch losing eight of nine games. It could've been easy for this team to pack it in and sleepwalk through the rest of the season.
However, this team is proving to have some fight in it after all.
Down 13 on the road at halftime, UCLA (8-10) pieced together a fantastic comeback -- narrowly defeating the Arizona Sun Devils (10-7) by a score of 68-66.
This was an effort that required patience, resiliency, and control. It became a very chippy game in the second half. In total, ASU had three separate players called for technical fouls (Shawn Phillips Jr. was ejected for two himself). This surely helped UCLA gain ground with the clock stopped. However, the game was still in the balance down the stretch.
After being benched to start the second half, Sebastian Mack took over in the final 10 minutes of the game. All 11 of his points game during this period. His aggressiveness in attacking the paint led to a team-high eight free-throw attempts. He had three big buckets down the stretch -- including a steal and score the other way to extend UCLA's lead to three.
Lazar Stefanovic is seemingly starting to find his shot. After scoring 15 points in the win over Washington last Sunday, he followed that up with 18 points tonight. He led the team with 3 threes and six rebounds.
While he only scored nine points, Adem Bona's impact on the game was considerable. He had a team-high five assists, six rebounds, and a whopping seven (!) blocks. The bench also performed quite well. Freshman Brandon Williams had 13 points in 19 minutes (on 5-of-6 from the field). Will McClendon had seven points, two of which came in the final seconds from the free throw line to ice the game.
Even though UCLA is still below .500, we could look back on this as a turning point. This young team has now won two in a row. This game in particular was a crash course on how to win on the road amidst adversity. Not only that, but this team did not quit. They kept fighting until the final whistle.
While it wasn't perfect, the team's collective improvement seems to be bubbling to the surface at this present time.
