Jan. 5, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Shabazz Muhammad scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half when UCLA pulled away to defeat Stanford 68-60 on Saturday, extending its winning streak to seven games.
Jordan Adams added 12 points and Kyle Anderson had 12 rebounds for the Bruins (12-3, 2-0 Pac-12), who are on their longest run of consecutive wins since taking 10 in a row during the 2008-09 season. They won their eighth straight at home against Stanford, and 11th in their last 12.
The victory allowed UCLA to complete a sweep on opening weekend of Pac-12 play. The Bruins beat California 79-65 on Thursday.
Dwight Powell had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Chasson Randle added 17 points for Stanford (9-6, 0-2). The Cardinal lost at USC 71-69 two days earlier, and fell to 9-29 on the road in conference play dating to the 2008-09 season. Stanford has dropped 15 of their last 16 on the Los Angeles road trip.
The Bruins built a 15-point lead with 6:33 to play, but they got sloppy. UCLA committed eight turnovers while Stanford scored nine of the next 11 points to close to 57-49. John Gage, who finished with 10 points, scored five in a row in the spurt.
Larry Drew II, who had seven assists, made a layup that restored UCLA's lead to 10 points. Then Adams missed three straight free throws, while Randle hit a layup and 3-pointer to get Stanford to 59-54 with 47 seconds left.
The Bruins made 9 of 10 free throws after Adams' misses to end the game.
The Bruins' high-octane offense sputtered in the slow-moving game. They came in averaging a Pac-12-leading 80.8 points and they'd averaged 90.2 in their previous five games. They were 21 of 51 from the floor and had 14 turnovers, as did the Cardinal.
Both teams shot poorly in the first half of a game that tipped off at noon PST. The Bruins were 9-25 from the field - missing their first six shots and trailing by four points - while the Cardinal was 7-26.
The Wear twins combined to score UCLA's first 15 points. Travis Wear had seven in a row before David scored the next eight, including back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the Bruins' lead to 15-11.
UCLA used a 6-3 run to end the half leading 30-22.
- - - - - - - - - -
NOTES: Stanford has lost back-to-back games only four times since the start of last year ... Chasson Randle's 17 points were his most since a 21-point outing against Northern Iowa back on Nov. 23. Randle was 7-19 overall ... Dwight Powell notched his third double-double of the year, matching a career high with 13 rebounds to go along with 17 points in 38 minutes ... John Gage added 10 points, reaching double figures for the fourth time this year. He is averaging 7.6 points over his last five games ... John Gage and Josh Huestis pulled down 10 boards, representing the sixth time this season he has reached double figures in rebounds ... Stanford entered the game shooting 72.8 percent from the foul line, but converted only 9-16 from the charity stripe compared to UCLA's 23-33 clip ... The Cardinal has shot less than 40.0 percent in a game eight times this year ... Stanford has dropped 15 of its last 16 contests during the regular-season Southern California trip.
- - - - - - - - - -
QUOTES
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
"The postgame message was: how we continue to work on being better. It was very constructive. We talked about what we have to do to get better and it was a conversation involving everyone."
"We held UCLA way under their scoring average, but we have to do a lot better at making shots. We missed too many point-blank shots. Some of our guys are still getting comfortable in new roles along with freshmen coming in."
UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland
"I am really happy to get this win. It was a tough game versus Stanford. They are a tough, hard-nosed team. Our field goal percentage defense was outstanding again in back-to-back games. I give them a lot of credit because we had them down about 14 points and they kept finding ways to battle back."
"Stanford was very patient. This is how the teams in this league are going to play, and it will make for a very difficult schedule. We had 14 turnovers today, which are more turnovers than our last two games combined. We will definitely have to take care of the ball more."