UCLA basketball: Bruins trail Arizona, 38-33, at halftime

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Reeves Nelson’s ankle is fine. So is his ability to single-handedly keep his team in the game.

The UCLA sophomore forward scored 17 points and made all seven of his shots from the field in the first half Thursday night at the McKale Center against Arizona, and the Bruins trail, 38-33, at halftime.

Nelson had been limited in practice this week by a sprained left ankle, but he was plenty mobile on a number of forays to the basket, going in for layups and dunks to keep UCLA close.

Arizona forward Derrick Williams scored 12 points and had the highlight of the first 20 minutes, a one-handed dunk off an alley-oop pass that appeared to be too high before Williams corralled it at the last moment and stuffed it through the basket.

The Wildcats led by as many as seven points midway through the half before UCLA battled back to tie the score at 29-29 on a pair of free throws by Nelson, who made three of six attempts from the free-throw line. Arizona scored the final four points of the half.

The first-half stats were fairly even. UCLA shot 48% to Arizona’s 44.4% and committed 11 turnovers to the Wildcats’ 10, but there was a big discrepancy in three-pointers; Arizona made four of six and the Bruins made only one of six.

UCLA freshman center Joshua Smith, playing for the first time since the opening half of the Bruins’ game against California a week ago, was not much of a factor, scoring five points and grabbing no rebounds in seven minutes. Bruins sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt was also a bit of a no-show, missing all three shots and committing three turnovers, though he did grab seven rebounds.

UCLA junior guard Lazeric Jones missed all five of his first-half shots.

--Ben Bolch, reporting from Tucson