Time for Afflalo to Pull Out Stops

Arron Afflalo is confident about his defensive abilities and proud that UCLA Coach Ben Howland assigns him to the best opposing player.

And Afflalo, a thoughtful, well-spoken freshman, knows when he needs to be better. After all, he had the eye-crossing job of guarding Arizona’s deadeye shooter Salim Stoudamire last month.

When Stoudamire scored 24 second-half points and stared Afflalo in the face as he rose and swished a 26-footer with two seconds left to give the Wildcats a 76-73 win Jan. 15 in Tucson, Afflalo acknowledged his mistake.

Howland told Afflalo to stick to Stoudamire in those last, furious seconds. Howland wanted Afflalo chest to chest with Arizona’s guard, wanted Afflalo to stick an elbow in his stomach, bump a hip to Stoudamire’s thigh.

Instead, Afflalo backed off. He was hesitant because he had been called for a touch foul moments earlier and because Stoudamire had been so quick for 20 minutes in beating Afflalo with a step when Afflalo came close.

“I’ve got to be better this time,” Afflalo said. “Because Stoudamire broke our backs the last game. It’s my job to stop him, and I didn’t.

“I will say that I will be better this time.”

After beating Arizona State, 95-76, Thursday night, the Bruins (13-7 overall) are 7-5 in the Pacific 10 conference and in third place, a half-game ahead of Stanford. Now they get a rematch against 12th-ranked Arizona (20-4, 10-2).

Those who have had the most success against Stoudamire (who had 32 points against UCLA last month) are players built like the long-armed Thomas Kelati of Washington State. He held Stoudamire to 11 points -- his lowest total in a month.

Howland is confident Afflalo will do better. “He’s going to play very, very hard,” Howland said. “I didn’t have to get after him at all.”

After UCLA led Arizona for much of that January game, the shock of the last-second loss carried over. Stoudamire’s shot sent the Bruins on a two-game losing streak at Pauley Pavilion, a lost weekend in which UCLA barely put up a fight against Stanford and California. Then the Bruins fell behind USC by 18 points in the first half before coming back to win.

“That was a hard thing,” Afflalo said this week. “I take pride in my defense, and I met up with a guy who was unstoppable by me for a half. It won’t happen again.”

Afflalo said he will do better at trying to stay in Stoudamire’s face, and that he will always regret not listening to Howland’s instructions to deny Stoudamire any space on the last possession.

“It was a learning experience,” Afflalo said.

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The 27 points UCLA’s own hot-shooting senior, Dijon Thompson, had in the first half against Arizona State were the third-most by a Bruin in a first half and the most in 38 years. Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) had 32 first-half points in a 56-point night against USC in 1966 and 28 first-half points against Washington State in a 1967 game in which he finished with 61 points, still a single-game UCLA record. Thompson finished with a career-high 39 points.

Freshman forward Josh Shipp will continue to play with a pad to protect a bruised left thigh he injured in practice Tuesday when 7-foot Ryan Hollins ran his knee into it.

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TODAY

vs. Arizona, 5, FSNW

Site -- Pauley Pavilion.

Radio -- XTRA (570).

Records -- Bruins 13-7, 7-5 in Pacific 10; Wildcats 20-4, 10-2.

Update -- Stoudamire, who is averaging 20.7 points a game in Pac-10 play, three more than he averages overall, gets plenty of offensive support from fellow senior Channing Frye. The 6-foot-11 center, who Howland expects will play in the NBA next season, is ninth in the league in scoring (14.9 ppg.) and fifth in rebounding (7.7). Frye kept Arizona in the first game against UCLA by scoring 15 first-half points before Stoudamire took over. And Frye has eight blocked shots in his last two games. The Wildcats made 18 of 29 shots (62.1%) in the second half of Thursday’s 88-76 victory over USC. The Bruins made 14 of 20 (70%) in the second half against Arizona State.