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On the long plane ride from Los Angeles to New York, UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland was preparing for his team's game Saturday against St. John's at Madison Square Garden so he watched game film from the Bruins' 66-59 victory over the Red Storm from last season.

He might have been better off taking a nap.

St. John's bears little resemblance to the team UCLA faced a year ago at Pauley Pavilion, with no players on the current roster having played in that game and coach Steve Lavin taking a limited role as he recovers from prostate cancer.

The Red Storm, because of player graduations and defections, will run out a starting lineup of five freshman for the 10 a.m. PT tipoff and use a junior college transfer as their only significant bench player. Last year's Red Storm squad finished 21-12 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a roster that included 10 seniors, but the lone returning player from that team -- guard Malik Stith -- quit the team last week for personal reasons.

The Red Storm (10-16, 4-10 Big East) have lost nine of their last 11 games, including four in a row, but Howland says he isn't taking the team lightly.

"They are really playing hard," Howland said. "Some of their freshmen have been incredible. These kids are very talented. They are young, but they are very talented."

Leading the way for St. John's are D'Angelo Harrison, a 6-foot-3 guard, and Moe Harkless, a 6-8 forward. Harrison is averaging 16.7 points to lead all Big East freshmen and Harkless is averaging 15.9 points and 8.5 rebounds -- second among Big East freshmen in scoring and first in rebounding.

Harkless is the tallest player on the team, so the smaller, quicker Red Storm will present a matchup problem for the Bruins, who have four regulars at 6-10.

"They are a very dangerous, long, athletic team," Howland said. "They’re pressing back to their zone. Their zone is very aggressive with a lot of ball pressure. It's a hard matchup for us because they play small."

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UCLA football coach Jim Mora has noticed something a little different around the Westwood campus this week thanks to a certain high-profile NFL quarterback working out at the Bruins practice facility.

"There’s a little Tebow-mania going on here on the UCLA campus," Mora said. "There’s a few more girls hanging around the football office and the football field that there typically are."

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is in town working out with UCLA offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Noel Mazzone and Mazzone's son, Taylor, and that has brought a tinge of Tim-sanity to UCLA this week. Tebow and Mazzone are working on mechanics and trying to get Tebow more efficient after he completed only 46.5 percent of his passes last season.

Also working out at UCLA on Thursday was San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder and former Arizona State quarterback Brock Osweiler are expected in over the next few days.

Mazzone wouldn't go into specifics about what he and Tebow were working on, saying only that they were trying to improve his mechanics.

"He’s obviously a guy that wants to get better, like they all do," Mazzone said. "And wants to kind of become good at his craft and his craft is being an NFL quarterback. Like Philip Rivers. There is nothing I’m going to say that’s going to make Philip Rivers any better than the quarterback he is, but they love to compete, they like to play and they like to get better at what they do."

Mora took over as coach in December, replacing Rick Neuheisel. He hired a staff of respected assistants, including Mazzone, who had been offensive coordinator at Arizona State the past two seasons. He said having players such as Tebow and Rivers seeking out Mazzone's assistance says a lot about the kind of coaches he has on his staff.

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LOS ANGELES -- UCLA completed a season sweep of crosstown rival USC with a 64-54 Pac-12 victory Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.

The Bruins (15-11, 8-6 Pac-12) took control early in the game and then held off a late rally by USC (6-21, 1-13) to hand the Trojans their fifth consecutive loss and 14th in the last 15 games. It was UCLA's third consecutive victory over the Trojans and the Bruins improved to 44-20 all time against USC at the Sports Arena.

"It was good to sweep the Trojans," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "That’s always a good thing for us. Believe me, I was worried sick to my gut about this game playing right here in their back yard in what used to be their facility."

The Trojans are playing with a roster that includes only six active scholarship players as they have lost five to season-ending injuries since last summer. Howland came away impressed that the Trojans fought back Wednesday after being down by as many as 23 midway through the second half and cutting the lead to 10 with 1:34 to play.

"They’ve been through about as rough a year as you can have with all the adversity and injuries so I give Kevin [O'Neill] and his staff a lot of credit for keeping those kids to where they’re down here at the very end of the season fighting like it’s the beginning of the year," Howland said.

Five observations from the game:

1The Wear twins had USC seeing double

Twins David and Travis Wear had their best combined game as Bruins with a total of 30 points and 24 rebounds between them. They each had a double-double marking the first time in their college careers that has happened.

The 6-foot-10 twins had a distinct size advantage against USC, which doesn't play anybody taller than 6-7, but they also had motivation after each played poorly Saturday against Cal, when they combined to shoot 5-for-19 from the field and had 14 points and eight rebounds.

"I was especially hard on myself because of how I played," said David Wear, who had 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. "I only had one rebound, I think, and that’s unacceptable. I really used that as motivation coming into Monday and Tuesday. I knew that to turn it around I was going to have to play harder and come with a different mindset."

The Wears scored 14 of UCLA's final 15 points, continuing to play hard as USC was trying to get back in the game. Howland said he was pleased to see his sophomore transfers from North Carolina respond to their poor performance from the previous game.

"They came out with a sense of purpose and direction to play tougher, play more physical and go hard to the offensive glass," Howland said. "We need that form both of them as we go forward down the stretch."

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LOS ANGELES -- Just when the Sports Arena was starting to finally feel like home, this game comes around.

UCLA will play USC Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m at the Sports Arena and the Bruins will be the home team even though the Trojans will be able to walk to the arena and the Bruins must take a bus across town.

Such is the life for UCLA this season as the Bruins have played all of their games off campus while Pauley Pavilion undergoes a renovation, but this us the first time they'll play a home game so close to their opponent's campus

"All of our games haven’t really felt like home games so this isn’t really anything new," center Joshua Smith said. "People have said that they will have a lot of fans there being that it is on their campus, but it doesn’t matter. We’re just going to go out there and play."

When UCLA first announced that it would use the Sports Arena as it's home venue this season, one of the the biggest concerns was it's proximity to USC. The arena is not technically part of USC's campus, but it's adjacent. The Trojans used the venue as their home court from 1959-2006 before moving into the Galen Center just down the street.

UCLA has done a nice job UCLA-ifying the place, with blue uplighting, blue signage, blue paint, a UCLA logo on the court and national championship banners hung from the rafters, but there is nothing they can do about the location of the venue so it will be interesting to see which team draws more fans.

"I’m not concerned at all," guard Tyler Lamb said. "We’re not playing to see how many fans go to the game, we’re playing to win. That’s the main thing. We are playing on SC’s campus, but I still feel like it’s a home game for us. We’ve been playing there all year and we’ve adjusted to it pretty well. I think we’re still going to get great fan support."

The Bruins (14-11, 7-6 Pac-12) haven't drawn particularly well at the Sports Arena, with an average of 5,510 in their 11 games there. The only saving grace is that USC (6-20, 1-12) isn't much of a draw either. The Trojans are averaging a conference-low 4,108 for home games, so the Bruins might not have to be too worried about the crowd being pro-USC.

But then again, this rivalry does tend to bring the fans out of the woodwork. The last time the teams met, there were 8,474 at the Galen Center--the biggest USC home crowd this season by more than 2,000.

"I really do want to see if we’re going to have more fans than them," guard Lazeric Jones said. "I’m sure we’ll get more of our fans out there. Hopefully I don’t have to go out and recruit fans."

The Bruins will be heavy favorites. Injury-plagued USC is enduring one of the worst seasons in school history with four key players out for the season. When UCLA played USC on Jan. 15, the Bruins won easily, 66-47, and that was before the Trojans lost starting forwards Aaron Fuller and Dewayne Dedmon.

Fuller (10.6 points, 5.9 rebounds) was the team's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder. Dedmon (7.6 points, 5.5 rebounds) was fourth in scoring and second in rebounding. The Trojans have lost 13 of their last 14 games and haven't scored more than 50 points in three consecutive games.

Still, the Bruins can ill-afford to take anyone lightly, let alone the crosstown rival.

"The bottom line is if USC beats us tomorrow, that will really be a feather in their cap with everything they’ve gone through," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "We know they’re going to come out and play really hard and play really tough."

UCLA will begin it's first spring football practice under new coach Jim Mora on April 3 and the annual spring game will be May 5 at the Rose Bowl, athletic director Dan Guerrero announced Tuesday in his weekly Word from Westwood blog.

UCLA's spring practices will be held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at Spaulding Field on campus from April 3-May 3 and are likely to be open to the public. The time of the spring game at the Rose Bowl has yet to be finalized.

"We are working with Rose Bowl officials to play the Spring Game there that day but have yet to finalize a time," Guerrero wrote. "Once we have determined that, as well as some other Spring Ball logistical details, we will be sure to pass them along."

LOS ANGELES -- What little hope UCLA had for this season disappeared into the rafters during a 73-63 loss to California on Saturday afternoon at the Sports Arena.

Talk of running the table and winning the Pac-12 Conference wafted away as California clearly claimed its spot as the top team in the league with a convincing win on the road.

UCLA had hinted that it was poised for a late-season surge, but the Golden Bears dashed those hopes and the Bruins must now try to find a way to heal their bruised egos and figure out a way to salvage the season.

A run to the Pac-12 tournament title is about the only path to the NCAA tournament for UCLA at this point, but so long as California stands in the way, the Bruins seem to have no shot at that, either.

The Bruins have been competitive in every conference game this season except for the two against Cal. You could argue the Bruins should have won every conference game this season, except for the two tangos with the Golden Bears.

A victory Saturday would have kept some semblance of hope alive. Heck, a close loss might even let you think the Bruins (14-11, 7-6 Pac-12) could pull an upset over Cal (20-6, 10-3) should they meet sometime down the road. But the thorough and methodical pounding the Golden Bears delivered both times they played UCLA makes it pretty clear which is the superior team as the Bruins fell three games behind Cal with five conference games to play.

"It’s disappointing obviously," UCLA guard Jerime Anderson said. "We saw where we could have been and where we’re at now. We look at it like that was the game at hand and we needed to beat that Cal team just for our sake, but it didn’t go down like that today."

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LOS ANGELES -- UCLA backup center Anthony Stover did not play in the Bruins' 73-63 loss to California on Saturday because of a tendon injury in his left foot, but is expected to be back Wednesday against USC.

Stover, a 6-foot-10 sophomore defensive specialist, injured his foot during the first half Thursday against Stanford but played the rest of that game. He said he woke up the next morning in a lot of pain and went to see the team trainer. He had an MRI exam and X-Ray and both came back clear.

"It should be fine," Stover said. "I should be practicing on Monday and playing on Wednesday."

UCLA could have used Stover's defensive presence Saturday against a Cal team that shot 51.9 percent from the field and scored nearly half of its points in the paint. Stover, a fan favorite because of the defensive energy he brings, has 32 blocked shots. Coach Ben Howland said he would have liked to play Stover, but that it wasn't worth the risk of further damage.

"I thought it was better to try to get him back to being healthy by the time we play again on Wednesday," Howland said.

Stover told Howland before the game that he didn't think he could play. By halftime, he said he felt like he could have gone in, but thought Howland made a good decision by not using him.

"I feel like today my foot could have supported me but I think coach Howland made a good decision and was thinking for the long run instead of this one game," Stover said.

LOS ANGELES -- California demonstrated why it is one of the Pac-12 Conference leaders with a convincing 73-63 victory over UCLA Saturday at the Sports Arena.

It is the first time since 1992-93 that Cal (20-6, 10-3) has swept the season series from UCLA (14-11, 7-6) and it was UCLA's first home conference loss this season. Cal also swept USC, marking the first time the Golden Bears have swept both Los Angeles-area schools since 1958-59.

OVERVIEW:UCLA fell into a 17-point hole with 8:42 to play, but tried to make a game out of it and got to within seven at 66-59 with 3:15 to play. It was too much to overcome for the Bruins, who committed two crucial turnovers on their next three possessions and made only one of their last four shots.

Cal's Allen Crabbe made a back-breaking 3-pointer to give the Golden Bears a 70-59 lead with 1:19 to play. California's precision offense and timely passing was too much for UCLA to overcome as the Golden Bears shot 51.9 percent for the game. Justin Cobbs led the way with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Crabbe added 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

TURNING POINT: California made 11 of its first 15 shots of the second half, including eight of its first 10, extending a 32-26 halftime lead to 64-47 with 8:42 to play. California seemingly scored at ease during the dominant run which featured several well-executed pick and rolls for which UCLA had no defensive answer.

UCLA held California to only two field goals the rest of the game, but that early second-half dominance changed the tone of the game and the Bruins were playing catchup the rest of the way.

UCLA STAR OF THE GAME:Jerime Anderson scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting for the Bruins, who shot only 39.7 percent for the game. Anderson's 3-pointer just before halftime helped UCLA stay close at 32-26 when it looked as if Cal might take a double-digit halftime lead.

Anderson also brought the Bruins back from oblivion when he scored nine points during a 12-2 run that closed a 64-47 deficit to 66-59 with 3:13 to play. Anderson's 3-pointer ended that run.

STAT OF THE GAME: UCLA had zero assists as a team in the first half and had only seven for the game -- a season low. Anderson and fellow point guard Lazeric Jones had some moments of selfish play, but the low assists total was mostly attributed to the post players being unable to hold on to passes or finish plays in the paint.

Center Joshua Smith (3-7), forward Travis Wear (1-6) and forward David Wear (4-13) all missed several easy chips shots around the basket. They were a combined 3-of-15 from the field in the first half.

WHAT IT MEANS: UCLA is clearly a notch below California. The Golden Bears are the only conference team that has easily dispatched UCLA and they have now done it twice this season. The Bruins have been within single digits in each of their other four conference losses and could easily be in the mix for the regular-season conference title, but they trailed Cal by as many as 24 in their 85-69 loss on Dec. 31 and were down by 17 in the second half Saturday.

The Bruins are eying the Pac-12 tournament as their best shot at an NCAA tournament berth, but they are more than likely headed toward the NIT, especially if they run into the Golden Bears at Staples Center in March.

LOS ANGELES -- If Anthony Stover should have any bad feelings about UCLA's game Saturday against California, coach Ben Howland would like his sophomore center to please speak up.

Stover said earlier this week that his team didn't "feel there" when the Bruins lost, 85-69, Dec. 31 at Cal and that "none of us came ready to play that game."

Howland on Friday said Stover should do something about it should he have that feeling before UCLA's game against the Golden Bears at 1 p.m. at the Sports Arena.

"I’m embarrassed for him if he knew we weren’t ready in his mind and didn’t do anything about it," Howland said.

The results of that game make you wonder if it would have done any good for Stover to say anything. It was easily the worst performance in Pac-12 play by the Bruins this season. The 16-point margin was UCLA's only conference loss by double digits and the game wasn't even as close as the final score indicated.

Cal led by as many as 24 points with less than five minutes to play, and UCLA's defense offered little resistance in letting Cal shoot 65.4 percent from the field. It was one of the defensive low points of the season for the Bruins, who have not lost another conference game by more than seven points and have held second-half leads in every conference game since.

So, two days after avenging their closest conference loss with a victory Thursday over Stanford, the Bruins (14-10, 7-5) will try to make amends for their biggest conference blowout, though it will not be easy. California (19-6, 9-3) is in a first-place tie in the Pac-12 and is well-rested after an easy 75-49 thumping of USC on Thursday.

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LOS ANGELES -- UCLA finally seems to have learned how to hold on to a lead.

After building a reputation this season for letting leads slip away late in games, the Bruins withstood a late-game charge for the second consecutive game and defeated Stanford, 72-61, in a Pac-12 Conference game Thursday night at the Sports Arena.

Despite making only 9-of-16 free throws in the final 1:52, UCLA (14-10, 7-5) held off Stanford (16-8, 6-6), which had pulled to within three points at 56-53 with 4:45 to play. It was the fourth win in five games for UCLA, which also held off a late run in a 63-60 victory Saturday at Washington State. UCLA has now won 10 consecutive home games including six in a row at the Sports Arena.

"I was proud of our poise," coach Ben Howland said. "I was pleased with the poise that we showed when they made a comeback and made a run and fought our way through it."

The Bruins broke a sixth-place tie in the conference standings and are now two games behind leaders Washington and California with a game Saturday at 1 p.m. against California at the Sports Arena.
Five observations from the game:

1Lazeric Jones wasn't going to let it get away again

Jones scored a game-high 21 points to go along with six assists and six steals, more than making amends for his final-second decision that cost UCLA the game last time UCLA played Stanford.

In that 60-59 loss, Jones drove to the basket and tried to penetrate, but had his shot blocked at the buzzer instead of finding a wide open Tyler Lamb or stopping for a jump shot. Thursday, he played the entire game as if he were on a mission to make up for that play.

"We were upset that we got that loss up there," Jones said.

Jones basically won the game in a stretch of about a minute and a half when he made a 3-pointer with 3:35 to play after Stanford had pulled to within three at 56-53. On the next possession he hit Jerime Anderson for a jump shot with 2:44 to play and then scored on a layup on the next UCLA possession as the Bruins opened a 63-53 lead. He got a steal on the other end of the court and Anderson made one of two free throws after getting fouls and UCLA had a 64-53 lead with 1:52 to play.

He also made the highlight play of the night, taking a tipped pass at mid court and making a behind-the-back pass to Anderson for a slam dunk that gave UCLA a 46-36 lead.

"Zeek is our captain," Howland said. "He's really stepped up and he played great tonight."

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LOS ANGELES--Ben Howland was saddled with the unfortunate task of watching the game film from UCLA's first go-round with Stanford this season.

"It brought back a lot of bad memories," Howland said.

Lazeric Jones, Jerime Anderson and the rest of the Bruins have been replaying that nightmare in their heads for the last six weeks. The Bruins lost, 60-59, at Stanford on Dec. 29 when Anderson missed a wide-open, 3-point attempt with 11 seconds left, the Bruins got the rebound and then Jones tried to drive the lane and had his shot blocked by Stanford's Josh Huestis at the buzzer.

"It’s been eating at me for a while now," Jones said.

"That’s really bothered me since that game because I had a chance to win the game," Anderson said.

The Bruins (13-10, 6-5 Pac-12) get a chance at redemption when they meet the Cardinal (16-7, 6-5) Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Sports Arena. It begins a critical stretch during which the Bruins play five of their final eight games at home as they try to regain footing in the Pac-12 Conference standings.

It could be argued that they lost that footing in that game against Stanford because the season has been a broken record since then with UCLA getting in close road games but unable to pull out the victories. The Bruins were within a point at halftime before getting blown out by Cal, blew double-digit, second-half leads at Oregon and Washington and forgot how to play defense in a three-point loss at Oregon State.

Poor free-throw shooting also hampered the Bruins in those games, but the inability to close out games on the road haunted UCLA until the Bruins held off Washington State last Saturday in Pullman, Wash. Before that, UCLA had not defeated a Division I team away from Southern California.

"It’s a huge boost," center Anthony Stover said. "We love winning in L.A. but to win someplace else it just makes us a lot more happy. When we come out and we know we won a game on the road, it gives us a little bit of a boost."

This weekend, the Bruins will be at home to play Stanford and California in what the Bruins are looking at as revenge weekend. The players feel as if they could have won both of their earlier matchups and will be looking for redemption.

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LOS ANGELES -- UCLA players often talk about the problems that arise when they don't take what is given to them, but what has really been holding back the Bruins this season is when they don't take what is free.

UCLA (13-10, 6-5) ranks eighth in the Pac-12 with a 66.1 free-throw percentage and those misses have cost the Bruins several games.

They missed nine free throws in a 60-59 loss at Stanford, missed 11 in a 75-68 loss at Oregon and missed five in a 71-69 loss at Washington. The Bruins shot 58.3 percent on free throws in those three games, but had they shot 70 percent, those games would have been much different, and had they shot 80 percent, the Bruins would have won all three and would be alone in first place atop the Pac-12 standings.

Even in wins, the Bruins have put up some ugly numbers at the free-throw line. They were 9-for-17 against Arizona State and 13-of-22 against Utah. Those games ended in blowout victories for UCLA, but missed free throws still have a psychological effect and UCLA's players can't figure out how to fix it.

"In practice when we work on free throws we’re all really good free-throw shooters so it’s frustrating when we get in a game and we’re shooting 50 percent some games," said David Wear, who is second on the team at 77.8 percent on free throws this season.

Lazeric Jones, the team leader last season at 81 percent, is shooting only 65.7 percent in conference games this season. Tyler Lamb, a 70.8 percent shooter last season, is at 61.9 percent in conference this season and center Joshua Smith -- the team leader with 107 attempts, is shooting only 57.9 percent this season.

"It's frustrating because we’re good shooters," said Jerime Anderson, a 60 percent free-throw shooter. "We have guys that can put the ball in the basket. It’s got to be mental now. That’s exactly what it is. We just have to step up the confidence at the line and make our shots."

Jones said he is working on his free-throw mechanics and routine to try and get back to where he was last season. Lamb is also trying to find his stroke. Coach Ben Howland said he's devoting extra time in practice this week to free-throw shooting.

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UCLA won for the first time against a Division I team away from Southern California, defeating Washington State, 63-60, Saturday at Beasley Coliseum.

It was the 19th consecutive victory for UCLA (13-10, 6-5 Pac-12) at Washington State and the first loss at Beasley Coliseum this season for the Cougars (12-11, 4-7).

OVERVIEW: Neither team could pull away for most of the game, but UCLA finally opened a 58-51 lead with 3:11 to play by going on an 8-0 run and then hung on down the stretch.

The Bruins had a 61-54 lead with 21 seconds to play, but Washington State's Reggie Moore made two 3-point shots in the final 13 seconds and the Bruins made only 5-of-9 free throws over that stretch, but David Wear and Lazeric Jones each made 1-of-2 in the waning seconds to seal the victory for UCLA.

TURNING POINT: UCLA switched to a zone defense with about 15 minutes to play and pretty much took over the game after that. Washington State led, 40-38 at the time of the switch and extended it to 45-39 shortly thereafter, but struggled against the zone the rest of the way.

The Bruins held Washington State to only four field goals over the final 11:30 -- including the two desperation 3-pointers by Moore at the end of the game. Washington State shot 45.5 percent in the first half, but were 10-of-33 (30 percent) in the second half when UCLA played mostly zone.

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After losing a heartbreaker in a place that is no stranger to UCLA losses, the Bruins head to a venue that has been much more friendly over the years for an afternoon game at Washington State.

The Bruins have won 18 consecutive games in Pullman with Washington State's last victory coming Feb. 6 1993 -- three months before UCLA freshman Norman Powell was born.

UCLA (12-10, 5-5) will be looking to keep that streak alive and get its first victory over a Division I team away from Southern California. The Bruins appeared to have that elusive road victory Thursday night at Washington but blew a 10-point lead in the final six minutes and lost, 71-69, for their ninth consecutive loss at Washington.

"Basketball is a game of runs," coach Ben Howland said. "There’s always going to be runs by the other team and we, I thought, did a pretty good job for the most part and really stubbed our foot at the end of the game. I don’t think it’s any one specific thing. We lost a little bit of poise at the end of that game."

Particularly disturbing was UCLA's inability to execute on offense against Washington's zone. The Bruins had done a good job against the zone when Washington went to it earlier in the game but seemed to get frazzled in the waning moments as the Huskies made a comeback.

"We just did a poor job," Howland said. "I should have stayed more simplistic. We actually had a couple of opportunities where we set high screens. Each time the guy inside was open and we just didn’t see it and that’s the first guy you look for. And one shot was rushed against the zone. We did attack it well until the last four or five minutes."

The Bruins will see a lot more zone Saturday against the Cougars (12-10, 4-6), who play a 3-2 zone and a 2-3 zone along with some switching man-to-man defense. They are also playing very well at Beasley Coliseum, where they are 8-0 this season and two weeks ago swept Stanford and California. Washington State's lone home loss came against Oregon in Spokane in the conference opener.

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UCLA blew a 10-point lead in the final six minutes and lost, 71-69, Thursday at Washington, the eighth consecutive loss for the Bruins at Alaska Airlines Arena and the fourth time in five road losses this season that UCLA has let a game get away late.

Joshua Smith had a career-high 24 points to go along with nine rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the Bruins (12-10, 5-5) remained winless against Division I teams away from Southern California.

Overview: UCLA led, 65-55, with 6:02 to play, but had four turnovers and went 2-for-7 from the field over the rest of the game. Washington went on a 13-0 run to take the lead and held on for the victory when Norman Powell's 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left fell off the front of the rim and Smith couldn't corral the rebound as time expired.

Washington guard Terrence Ross scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, including 12 in the final 6:21 as Washington (15-7, 8-2) rallied back and remained in first place in the Pac-12 Conference standings. Ross made 7-of-8 shot attempts in the second half and Washington shot 52 percent from the field in the game despite a 4-for-11 performance by leading scorer Tony Wroten.

Turning point: UCLA led by 10, but during a 28-second span, Lazeric Jones and Tyler Lamb each picked up their fourth fouls and a minute later David Wear picked up his fourth.

Those fouls seemed to deflate the Bruins, who went a stretch of five minutes, 30 seconds without a field goal. Twice the Bruins committed offensive fouls for turnovers during that span and Ross began heating up.

His layup with 2:35 to play gave Washington a 66-65 lead, it's first since halftime, and his 3-pointer with 1:15 to play gave the Huskies a 71-67 lead.

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