Poor-shooting Arizona Wildcats lose 65-52 to UCLA at McKale Center

Um, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing for the Wildcats.

Shooting just 25.4% from the field -- their worst-ever percentage in a McKale Center game since the arena opened 47 years ago -- Arizona lost its third straight game to UCLA at McKale, this time 65-52.

Arizona is now just 3-4 against the Bruins in Tucson since the Pac-12 added Utah and Colorado in 2011-12 and began playing an unbalanced schedule.

Saturday’s game was the ugliest version yet at McKale against the Bruins, now a more defensive-minded bunch under first-year coach Mick Cronin. The Wildcats trailed 29-28 at halftime after making 6 of 11 3-pointers but just 3 of 19 from inside the line.

Yes, 3 of 19.

“Think about how hard it is to miss,” UA coach Sean Miller said, “to miss 16 shots of the 19 from two.”

Things were even worse for the Wildcats in the second half.

Through the first 15 minutes of the second half, when UCLA built a 61-46 lead, the Wildcats made just 3 of 19 field goals including an 0-for-6 effort from 3-point range. And, when the smoke finally cleared, they made just 20.7% from two-point range in the second half, including misses on all 12 3s they took.

Yes, all 12.

“It's a rough night all around,” said guard Nico Mannion, who was 2 for 14 overall while hitting just 1 of 5 3-pointers. “I think 0 for 12 in the second half from 3, I mean, it's one of those nights when shots don't fall but we’ve still got to be able to find a way to gut one out when shots aren’t going down.”

The closest they came to gutting it out was when they went on a 7-0 run midway through the second half to cut UCLA’s lead to 45-44.

And then they were gutted.

UCLA went on a 14-0 run to take a 59-44 lead by the time David Singleton hit a 3-pointer with 5:19 left, and the game was never the same again. Not only did the Bruins’ pressure defense make life rough for them but they cut up the Wildcats on the other end, for 3s, for midrange shots, layups, creating  mismatches whenever possible along the way -- like having 6-foot-9 Chris Smith fire up a corner 3-pointer over 6-foot Max Hazzard.

“You can talk 10 minutes about offense, and you'd say boy it's tough to win when you have those numbers,” Miller said. “And then you could talk the next 10 minutes about defense. They beat us at both ends, and you got to give UCLA a lot of credit.”

While UCLA shot 51.1% overall from the field, including a 9-for-17 mark from 3, Arizona’s overall mark of 24.5% was only the second time UA had shot less than 38.5% percent this season; the Wildcats shot just 26.9% at Baylor on Dec. 7, when they also faced an overly physical defense.

While Zeke Nnaji had 14 points and 10 rebounds, he was just 2 of 8 from the field and his teammates were even worse from the perimeter. Mannion’s outside struggles were matched by a 3-for-11 game from Josh Green while Dylan Smith was 0 for 7, missing all four 3s he took.

“Dylan’s obviously struggling. I think he’s missed about 20 in a row,” Miller said, only slightly off in that Smith has actually missed 17 3s in a row, and has shot a collective 14.8% from the field in his past four games. “But Dylan’s 6-5 and he’s that one wing player who can really help us defensively.”

In the first half, Arizona put up enough good 3s to stay in a game largely dominated by 3-point shooting and difficult inside play.

A total of 12 of 19 first half shots by both teams were from 3-point range, with the Bruins going 6 of 10 from beyond the arc while UA was 6 for 11. 

Arizona's Jemarl Baker led all scorers in the half with nine points on, appropriately, 3-for-5 3-point shooting.

But inside UA’s 3-for-19 effort from two-point range was the fact that the normally efficient Nnaji went 0 for 5 before halftime.

Nnaji managed to score five points at the line in the first half and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for the game, while Miller indicated he didn’t fare well in a physical inside game.

Asked specifically about Nnaji’s performance, Miller said:

“Yeah, it was a physical night,” he said. “You know, I coached against Cincinnati (then coached by Cronin). And that's who we played tonight. We just weren't ready for.

"It's a man's game. You have to be physical. You have to go through contact, you can't cry. Sometimes you have to make a clever pass because they’re physical and walling up. Their toughness and physicality wore on all of us. It wore on our team.”

UCLA did not start forward Jalen Hill, who suffered a sprained knee in practice Wednesday and did not play Thursday at ASU. However, Hill entered the game after the first media timeout and finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

The loss dropped Arizona to 16-7 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-12 while UCLA improved to 13-11 and 6-5. UA next will travel to face California on Thursday and Stanford on Saturday.

Check out photos from Saturday's game here: