Ugly shots sink UCLA

By The Associated Press     Jan 29, 2007

Stanford forward Fred washington scores against UCLA. The Cardinal stunned UCLA, 75-68, Sunday in Stanford, Calif.

? Lawrence Hill rattled in a 14-footer to tie the game. His go-ahead three-pointer was only slightly prettier: It banked in.

“Honestly, I just black out,” he said. “I know when the play is designed for scoring, and I have an opportunity to get it in. That’s my focus. Whatever works.”

Stanford made nearly everything work in the second half.

Hill scored seven straight points – including those two key baskets – and the Cardinal rallied in the final 20 minutes to stun No. 3 UCLA, 75-68, on Sunday night, handing the Bruins just their second loss of the season.

Hill finished with 22 points for the Cardinal, who are making quite the case for being a contender after all.

Arron Afflalo had 22 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Bruins. But even he had trouble as the Bruins were thoroughly outplayed in the second half and had their four-game winning streak snapped. Their only other loss came Jan. 6 at Oregon, 68-66.

Stanford’s students rushed the court in a wild celebration at the final buzzer.

“It’s awesome,” guard Anthony Goods said. “We knew it would be a critical game. We all got our share of bruises today, but we kept fighting and never gave up.”

Goods scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half when the coaches kept saying to chip away calmly. He hit four of the team’s seven three-pointers as Stanford won its third straight and sixth in seven to complete a sweep of the ranked Los Angeles schools after a 65-50 victory over No. 25 USC on Thursday night.

Maybe now it’s the Cardinal’s turn to earn a ranking. Stanford (14-5, 6-3 Pac-10) was picked to finish seventh in the surprisingly even Pac-10.

They will have another tough one at home Wednesday night against Gonzaga.

“Obviously we’re pretty happy, and we have a lot to be happy about,” said coach Trent Johnson, who went to a smaller lineup after halftime. “We’ll enjoy it tonight and then at 3 o’clock tomorrow get ready for another good team.”

Fred Washington’s three-point play with 6:27 remaining capped a 15-0 run and a stretch in which Stanford outscored UCLA 39-14 spanning back to late in the first half.

Afflalo scored at 6:21 to end a four-minute drought for the Bruins, but they couldn’t get the key stops or rebounds in crunch time.

“We just didn’t come out with the intensity we needed to in the second half,” Afflalo said. “We didn’t capitalize on the little things. We missed a few layups and one or two shots we normally make. We have to be a little more mature in the way we close things out.”

UCLA (18-2, 7-2), which won both meetings last season for the first time since 1995 after losing the previous six matchups, shot 35 percent in the second half. This marked the first time in seven meetings the game was decided by single digits.

Darren Collison added 17 points and Josh Shipp had nine points, six steals and five assists for the Bruins.

Stanford made eight of its first 11 second-half baskets while UCLA went 6-for-19. Hill hit eight of 10 shots and Stanford went 14-for-20 for 70 percent from the field after trailing 37-25 at halftime.

Hill and Goods hit back-to-back threes to get the Cardinal to 49-44 with 10:38 left and Robin Lopez scored at 9:15 to cut UCLA’s lead to 51-49, much to the delight of the fans at packed Maples Pavilion. A sellout crowd of 7,334 turned out for the nationally televised game on the same court where the Bruins clinched sole possession of their first conference title in nine years with a 75-54 victory last March.

Hill made the tying shot at 8:28 and made the three at 7:29.

Goods’ baseline three-pointer at 16:33 pulled Stanford within 41-33 and he then made another basket at 13:25 to make it a seven-point game.

Stanford made 18-of-25 free throws after the break, while UCLA only got to the line six times and 15 overall. The Bruins blew it after a 17-point lead in the first half.

“No excuses. We had a golden opportunity with a 17-point lead,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “We’ve got to do a better job keeping the killer instinct.”

Afflalo scored 11 points in his first 12 minutes. His three free throws at 10:22 sparked a 13-4 UCLA run capped by Russell Westbrook’s transition dunk off a steal that made it 28-16. Johnson quickly used a timeout.

Afflalo had eight points as UCLA outscored Stanford 15-9 to close the first half for a 37-25 lead at halftime. The Cardinal were held without a field goal for 71â2 minutes – going 0-for-8 in that span – before Carlton Weatherby’s putback 44 seconds before halftime. Kenny Brown hit a three-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer.

Howland considered that a huge momentum swing for Stanford. So did the Cardinal.

“I was pretty positive – 12 sounds so much better than 17,” Washington said of the deficit.

No. 2 Wisconsin 57, Iowa 46

Iowa City, Iowa – Alando Tucker scored 27 points, Brian Butch added 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Wisconsin beat Iowa, eclipsing the best start in school history.

Tucker went 11-of-14 from the floor for the Badgers (21-1, 7-0 Big Ten), who topped the old mark of 20-1 set in 1915-16.

Wisconsin also extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 17 games.

Adam Haluska scored 16 points to lead Iowa (11-10, 3-4 Big Ten), which saw its 12-game home winning streak against Big Ten opponents snapped. The Hawkeyes fell for just the second time in 30 games at home.

No. 15 Marquette 70, South Florida 68

Tampa, Fla. – Dominic James scored 16 points, and Jerel McNeal stole a pass and drove nearly the length of the floor to make a layup at the buzzer to give Marquette a victory over South Florida.

James made a difficult layup in heavy traffic to tie the game with 15 seconds remaining, then McNeal provided his heroics after South Florida called a timeout to set up a potential game-winning play with nine seconds left.

McHugh Mattis inbounded the ball to Howard, who was trying to get the ball to Melvin Buckley when McNeal made the steal and dribbled upcourt. Howard hustled back to get defensive position under the basket, but was unable to stop McNeal from scoring.

Virginia 64, No. 19 Clemson 63

Clemson, S.C. – Jason Cain’s tip-in with 15.5 seconds left capped a 16-point comeback over the final nine minutes to lift Virginia over Clemson.

The Cavaliers (13-6, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed 61-45 after Cliff Hammonds’ three-pointer with 8:47 to go. But Clemson was held to two foul shots the rest of the way.

It was the second straight improbable defeat for Clemson (18-4, 4-4), which lost at Duke 68-66 on David McClure’s layup with no time remaining Thursday night when officials incorrectly added time after the Tigers had tied things.

Georgia 57, No. 21 LSU 54

Athens, Ga. – Levi Stukes’s three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left gave Georgia a victory over Louisiana State.

It was Stukes’ fourth three-pointer of the game and was one of eight second-half threes by the Bulldogs (13-6, 5-2 Southeastern Conference). He finished with 16 points.

Glenn Davis had 18 points, 14 rebounds and a career-high six assists for LSU (13-7, 2-4). Terry Martin added 16 points.

Takais Brown had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Georgia, which has won five of its last six games.

Georgia called timeout with 27 seconds left and spread the floor, allowing point guard Sundiata Gaines to work the clock before passing to Stukes for the game-winner.

No. 24 Virginia Tech 73, Georgia Tech 65

Atlanta – Zabian Dowdell scored 23 points, and A.D. Vassallo had 19 to help Virginia Tech beat Georgia Tech.

The Hokies (16-5, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have won three straight, six of eight and 12 of 14.

Their biggest lead was only 10 points, coming on Coleman Collins’ dunk with 17:43 remaining, but Virginia Tech never allowed the Yellow Jackets to pull any closer than three after Javaris Crittenton hit a three-pointer 2:24 later.

Georgia Tech (13-7, 2-5) has lost three straight to drop into 10th place in the ACC.

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