LAS VEGAS – Junior Reid Travis posted his seventh double-double in his last nine games and freshman KZ Okpala scored a career-high 23 points, however, No. 5 seed Stanford came up short in an 88-77 defeat to No. 4 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament Thursday at T-Mobile Arena.
The Cardinal (18-15) fell behind early, trailing by as many as 13 points midway through the first half. That deficit was quickly erased, however, as Stanford used an 8-0 run in a minute span to climb back into it.
Fueled by a pair of three-pointers from Daejon Davis and another from Dorian Pickens, Stanford put together a 15-2 run to tie it up at 32-32 with less than five minutes remaining in the half.
The Bruins went back on top to close the half, holding a 44-40 advantage at the break.
Davis, who scored 10 points in the opening half, was limited by early foul trouble.
The Cardinal freshman point guard, who entered the game averaging 22.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in two regular-season games against UCLA, was called for his fourth foul 1:06 into the second half. He was forced to go to the bench for a 12-minute stretch.
The Bruins tried to push their lead to double digits, but the Cardinal would not give up. Stanford twice got within four points in the second half, but could not get any closer.
UCLA, led by Aaron Holiday's 34 points, stretched its advantage to 11 with five minutes to play and held on for the 11-point win to advance to Friday's Pac-12 Tournament semifinals.
Okpala, whose previous best scoring total was 21 at Washington State, scored 14 of his career-best 23 in the second half. He added seven rebounds and five assists, while going 10-of-13 from the free throw line.
Pickens finished with 11 for Stanford, including three triples to extend his streak of games with multiple three-point field goals to 15.
Travis posted 17 points and 14 rebounds, matching his season-high rebounding total.
Despite being limited to 22 minutes with foul trouble, Davis had 11 points and a pair of assists for the Cardinal. He is one assist away from tying Brevin Knight's (1993-94) Stanford record of 150 assists as a freshman.