Bruins Win Endgame

Only seconds remained in UCLA’s season.

Seconds to pull out a game in which the Bruins had struggled to shoot, struggled to hang on to the ball, struggled to stop Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison.

Only seconds to complete a comeback from a deficit that had reached 17 points and was still nine with 3:26 to play, to find a way to reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1997.

Somehow, the Bruins found the time and the will to do it Thursday, scoring the final 11 points to defeat Gonzaga, 73-71.

UCLA will face top-seeded Memphis on Saturday.

To reach that point, the Bruins (30-6) had to wrest the ball from Morrison with around 11 seconds remaining, with the Bulldogs clinging to a 71-70 edge, all that remained of their once-commanding advantage.

Morrison was in his own backcourt, facing a trapping defense. He hurled the ball to teammate J.P. Batista, who found the Bruins’ Jordan Farmar and Cedric Bozeman all over him. Bozeman jarred the ball loose, Farmar grabbed it and saw what he had been waiting to see all night, an opening to pull ahead.

There, for the blink of an eye, was Bruin freshman forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute free under the Bulldog basket, in the right place at the time, just as he has been so often this season.

Farmar whipped him the ball, Mbah a Moute made the catch and the layup, and UCLA was ahead, 72-71, its first lead of the game with 9.2 seconds to play.

“We were trying to apply extreme pressure,” Farmar said. “I saw Luc was coming under the basket. [Derek] Raivio was also near there so I had to put it up a little higher. Thank God Luc is 6-7 with a seven-foot wingspan.”

It wasn’t over yet. Gonzaga’s Raivio, bringing the ball into the front court, was tied up by Mbah a Moute, and UCLA gained possession. Arron Afflalo was fouled and made one of two free throws and Batista got off a final shot at the end, missing the mark as the Bruin faithful in the Arena exploded in ecstasy.

“It’s really just a testament,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said, “to the character, the toughness, the heart of our players to have the never-quit attitude.”

There were plenty of opportunities to do so Thursday night.

The Bruins were in trouble from the start. They missed their first nine shots. And they missed badly. Three-point attempts or short-range jumpers, it didn’t matter. If the ball hit the rim, it was an accomplishment.

Against a Gonzaga zone that appeared to completely baffle them, the Bruins went 8:43 before they connected on their first shot from the floor.

When Afflalo finally connected, a huge roar went up from the blue-clad Bruin contingent in the crowd.

Gonzaga (29-4) led only 18-9 at that point.

There was plenty of time to come back if the Bruins could only play the suffocating style of defense that had enabled them to reach the Sweet 16, win nine in a row and hold all nine opponents to 60 points or less.

If they could only find a path through the Gonzaga zone to the basket.

Even when they did, it went for naught. Mbah a Moute missed an easy layup late in the half.

The margin reached 37-20, but the Bruins cut it to 42-29 by the intermission.

UCLA was seven for 27 from the floor in the first half, including two for 13 from three-point range. It was free throws that kept the game from getting totally beyond the reach of a Bruin rally. UCLA made 13 of its 15 first-half free-throw attempts.

But by game’s end, all the negative numbers were forgotten.

“Obviously it was desperation time,” Afflalo said. “But three minutes can be a long time with only a nine-point lead.”

Morrison led all scorers with 24 points, and Batista added 18 and nine rebounds.

Farmar and Afflalo both had a team-high 15 points for the Bruins and Mbah a Moute was the rebounding leader with a game-high 10.

But this game wasn’t about the numbers. It was about the determination of a team that found a way to keep playing.

“”You’re down 17, time is not on your side,” Afflalo said. “That’s great incentive to start making plays. I knew the team still had high spirits.”

Said Howland: “They have until midnight to enjoy this and then we have to start thinking about Memphis.”

The Bruins might start thinking about Memphis, but Thursday night’s game is a memory for the ages.