UCLA barely puts up a fight in 66-57 loss to Montana

The Bruins trail for the game’s final 26 minutes 47 seconds, their deficit reaching as many as 17 points in the second half on the way to their fourth loss in a row.

This time, they could only be mad at themselves.

There were no officials to blame, just a collection of UCLA Bruins who played as if all it would take to win Sunday night was showing up.

They barely did that.

In a stunning display that stirs concerns about a repeat of last season, UCLA staggered through a 66-57 loss to Montana at Pauley Pavilion.

That would be Montana of the Big Sky Conference.

Three days after falling by a point to Kansas in the wake of a controversial last-second call, UCLA took three gigantic steps backward against a mid-major team that was coming off a four-point loss to Portland.

“I’m pretty sick right now,” Bruins junior guard Lazeric Jones said. “It’s terrible.”

The Bruins (3-4) trailed for the game’s final 26 minutes 47 seconds, their deficit reaching as many as 17 points in the second half on the way to their fourth loss in a row.

Fans started leaving when Montana’s Jordan Wood went in for a layup that gave the Grizzlies a 15-point lead with 9:07 remaining. And the exodus only intensified from there.

UCLA players sat on the bench wearing forlorn looks in the final seconds, Jones wrapping a towel around his head as if it could protect him from the disaster unfolding around him. Boos cascaded through the half-empty arena after the final buzzer.

“We deserved the boos,” said Bruins junior guard Malcolm Lee, who acknowledged taking Montana lightly. “Our fans came to watch us play, and we didn’t give them a good showing. A lot of people anticipated us to come out and play hard, especially from our showing against Kansas, and we did the exact opposite.”

UCLA was tentative on offense against Montana’s zone defense and mostly went through the motions on defense, allowing the Grizzlies (4-3) to make 52% of their shots.

The Bruins shot a season-low 31.3%, with sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt scoring 11 points on three-for-12 shooting after making 11 of 15 shots against Kansas.

Montana guard Will Cherry, who scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, said he sensed dissension among the Bruins.

“I could see it in their eyes and I could see that they were bickering among one another,” Cherry said. “We wanted to keep our foot on their necks.”

Asked whether UCLA’s players were doing enough to hold one another accountable, Jones said, “I think it’s kind of tough when you’re not doing that great yourself to get on someone else. We do have to do a better job of that. We still are a fairly young team.”

Bruins Coach Ben Howland second-guessed himself on a variety of issues, from letting his players attend Saturday night’s football game against USC to scheduling too many road games early in the season to not spending enough time practicing against a zone defense.

“Their zone was nothing like ours in practice,” admitted Lee, who led the Bruins with 13 points but made only four of 12 shots.

Nevertheless, Howland said this season was not starting to remind of him of last season, when the Bruins lost six of their first eight games and went on to finish with a losing record, “because these guys like each other.”

“It’s early, but it’s a bad loss, there’s no question,” Howland said. “We have to control our future by having better practices and playing harder. … The effort was just very, very weak. We have to regroup.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com