The Stanford Cardinal blew a golden opportunity to make up some ground in the Pac-10 as they blew a 14-point lead en route to a 68-57 loss at UCLA. The Cardinal jumped out to a 22-8 lead in the first ten minutes of the game but were unable to build on the lead and eventually were left in the dust by the Bruins. UCLA rode 23 points from Malcolm Lee, 17 points off the bench from Lazeric Jones, and 16 points from Tyler Honeycutt. Stanford received double digit contributions from Josh Owens (14), Jeremy Green (12), and Anthony Brown (10).
After putting up 22 points in the first 9:30 of the first half, Stanford managed only five points the rest of the half, and saw their lead cut to 27-26 at halftime. The second half didn’t start much better as Stanford was held to a single free throw basket the first three minutes of the half. In spite of all this, Stanford actually took a 31-30 lead at the 17:08 mark.
The game remained close as Stanford tied it at 46 with 9:20 to go. However, UCLA started to press down on the gas at this point and slowly pulled away. A 14-4 run gave UCLA a ten point lead and they won the free throw battle from there on out.
The loss drops Stanford to 3-4 in conference and temporarily in seventh place in the Pac-10 standings. USC and Oregon State both stand at 3-3 with games to play tonight. USC is actually hosting a Cal team that is 2-4 in conference. UCLA improves to 5-2 in conference and is now a half game ahead of the Arizona Wildcats, who travels to Washington State tonight.
Stanford is in action again this Thursday at 7:00pm pacific as they host Oregon, who is currently in last place in the Pac-10.