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Leave it to a trojan crybaby to lose his composure and cost his trojan teammates the biggest game of their lives.
The trojans wanted this game badly. They had lost by 21 in each of their last two tries in Pauley, Gabe Pruitt missed their last-second loss to UCLA (in the Bruins' Galen debut last month), and they wanted to win for Lodrick Stewart, who just lost his Great Grandpa.
Also, a victory on UCLA's home court, as a 10-point underdog no less, would assure sc of an entry into the NCAA Tournament. They were #19 coming in, so they'll probably get into the Big Dance regardless, but beating UCLA would have iced it for them.
So with all that riding on the game, you would think that sc would be fired up, and they were. They came out on fire, taking an early 20-10 lead. But the Bruins tightened up their game, and were down only one by Halftime.
The Bruins trailed most of the second half, despite great inside work (and strong Defense) by Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. But Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt and Stewart were hitting their outside shots. Darren Collison finally started to counter that with several penetrations (and one big three-pointer), and Arron Afflalo then came alive, bringing the Bruins even. Collison led the Bruins with 17 points, while Afflalo had 16, most of which came in crunchtime.
But the play of the game was made by Josh Shipp, and compounded by Stewart. Down by two with 4:35 to go, Shipp missed a shot, got the rebound, missed again, got the rebound again, and scored while getting fouled. Frustrated Lodrick grabbed the ball and slammed it down onto the court, and it bounced away, drawing a huge Technical Foul. Afflalo made both Free Throws, and Shipp then made his, making it a 5-point play that put the trojans in a hole that they never dug out of.
They made a few three's trying to come back, and lost by only 5, so the two points from the T were GIGANTIC. The trojans wouldn't have needed to foul intentionally, and the way they were hitting three's, they might have won. But no, they had to choke, by immaturely losing their cool, and blowing their chance to tie UCLA for 1st Place in the Pac-10.
It was a damn close game, that could have gone either way, so earlier this week, when the trojans' Nick Young said that the Bruins had a "cocky" program, maybe that was just enough motivation to put the Bruins over the top. Actually, it was Young who was looking cocky while staring down the Bruin student section after he made a shot.
So thanks to Nick and to Lod, for having Trojan Class, which has now led to three straight UCLA victories over sc including Football. In fact, if you study the last of the photos below, you'll see a friendly reminder of that Gridiron Classic. [Hint: Check out the clock].
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