Shaky Arizona Wildcats cough up 13-point second half lead in 57-54 loss to UCLA in Phoenix

In a 57-54 loss to UCLA at the Phoenix Suns’ home, Arizona coughed up 22 turnovers that led to 27 Bruins points while letting a 13-point second-half lead completely melt away.

Basically, it was a close-your-eyes type of loss to their ever-defensive-minded former Pac-12 rivals. It put the Wildcats back under .500 at 4-5 while 24th-ranked UCLA improved to 9-1.

“We had a good flow going there for a little bit and things just kind of unraveled,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “With big Mo not playing, we kind of are figuring out on the fly how this team is going to look going forward and trying to tweak some things, maybe see if this team has some other strengths.”

Saturday’s game was not an ideal time to experiment.

UCLA entered the game with the nation’s fourth-best defensive efficiency and acted like it, playing a role in Arizona’s 2-for-16 3-point shooting and the Wildcats’ 12 non-steal turnovers — like one with 40 seconds left, when UA’s Trey Townsend leaned out of bounds with the ball in his hands and UCLA’s Kobe Johnson in his presence.

That turnover gave the Bruins the ball back with a one-point lead, 55-54, and 38.5 seconds left.

UCLA’s ensuing possession ultimately produced a missed 3-pointer from Dylan Andrews, but Bruins guard Skyy Clark picked it up, drew a foul from UA’s Caleb Love and went to the line to hit two free throws.

Arizona had a final chance to send the game into overtime with 6.1 seconds and UCLA ahead 57-54, but the Wildcats couldn’t get anywhere near the rim. Point guard Jaden Bradley passed to KJ Lewis on the left wing but Lewis threw the ball up well to the right of the basket and UCLA rebounded the ball to end the game.

The Wildcats weren’t exactly trending like a team that would hit a game-tying 3 anyway. Their frequent go-to, Love, hit just 1 of 7 3-pointers while Veesaar was 0 for 4, Townsend was 0 for 2 and backup Anthony Dell’Orso hit the Wildcats’ only other long-range shot.

Instead, they were trending like a team that could fumble the game away. Townsend and Veesaar each had four turnovers while six other Wildcats had two or more turnovers, making every possession an occasion for the UA-heavy crowd of 8,437 to hold their breaths.

The Wildcats also made it potentially even more maddening for UA fans by appearing to put their first-half turnover troubles behind them, going on a 10-0 run in the first half and then building a 49-36 lead with 10:49 to go in the second half — but then turning the ball over six more times after that to help wash their lead fully away.

Trailing 30-28 at halftime after committing 13 turnovers that led to 16 UCLA points in the first half, Arizona appeared to turn it around early in the second half.

The Wildcats took a 32-30 lead after Love hit a 3-pointer with 18:42 left and later went on a 13-2 run that included a dunk from Townsend to give them a 45-36 lead with 12:33 left and two straight layups from Bradley to make it 49-36.

Over the first eight minutes of the second half, Arizona held UCLA to just 2-of-9 shooting while the Wildcats didn’t turn the ball over at all.

Then, it all went downhill fast. In all, the Wildcats committed nine turnovers over the final 12 minutes late while their defense backed off, allowing UCLA to tie the game at 52 with 3:43 left when Bruins guard Andrews scored on consecutive possessions. Arizona never took another lead after that.

Both teams wound up shooting 45% from the field, and UA held a 34-24 rebounding edge, but the Bruins scored 12 more points off opponent turnovers than the Wildcats did.

Lloyd said it wasn’t easy to “connect three passes” against the Bruins the way they were playing.

“They’re handsy and they’re good in the gaps,” Lloyd said. “A lot of them, you’re throwing to the guy a ball in a tight window and they’re attacking the ball, and obviously they’re good at it. They do a good job of swarming to the ball and making you play in uncomfortable, tight spaces.”

Clark said Johnson, the defensive specialist who transferred from USC, had a lot to do with it, especially down the stretch. While Andrews led the Bruins with four steals, Johnson had three steals and an apparent vocal presence.

“In the huddles and the time outs, dead balls, he was just telling us not give up and that we were gonna come back. We were gonna win,” Clark said. “And that energy, it’s infectious and so it just spread throughout the whole team. In the final 10 minutes, I think we really put it all together.”

For Arizona, it was the opposite. The Wildcats had moments but fell apart with the chance to take control.

Now they have two more nonconference games at home, against Samford on Wednesday and Central Michigan on Dec. 21, to try to fix things before heading into the potentially brutal Big 12 schedule ahead.

“It’s not coming easy,” Lloyd said. “We’re not going to act like everything’s going great and we’re expecting everything to just flow together naturally. We’re gonna have to fight for it. This group’s gonna have to fight.”