UCLA 72, Wisconsin 70: A last-second drive beats the Badgers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Wisconsin coach Greg Gard loved the effort Tuesday night against No. 23 UCLA.

The execution at various times in the consolation game of the Hall of Fame Classic, particularly in the final 3 1/2 minutes, left him sick.

"Now we can’t turn the ball over in three of our last eight possessions and have five points in eight possessions," Gard said after UCLA wiped out a six-point deficit and stole a 72-70 victory at the Sprint Center.

"You don’t close out games with that type of a statistic. It is the execution and part of that is maturity."

Aaron Holiday's drive with nine-tenths of a second left provided the winning score.

UW’s length-of-the-court inbound play, a pass from Brad Davison (14 points, four drawn charges) to Ethan Happ, was broken up and time expired. 

As a result, UW (2-3) suffered its third consecutive loss. All have come against ranked teams -- then-No. 17 Xavier last week at home, No. 24 Baylor on Monday and the Bruins on Tuesday.

BOX SCORE: UCLA 72, Wisconsin 70

"Eventually, I think we’ve got a pretty good team," said Gard, who started Davison and Aleem Ford for Brevin Pritzl and Andy Van Vliet.

"It’s just that we’ve got to get over that hump and mature in areas to finish halves, finish possessions and finish out games in the way that you need to."

Holiday finished UW by scoring 10 of his team-high 18 points in the final 2 minutes 47 seconds for the Bruins (4-1).

His final shot came after UW's Khalil Iverson (14 points, four turnovers) made 1 of 2 free throws to forge a 70-70 tie with 31 seconds left. After a UCLA timeout, Holiday got the ball outside the top of the key. He used a screen from Thomas Welsh and dribbled to the left wing, where Davison doubled and poked the ball away.

 UW's D'Mitrik Trice (14 points) switched off onto Welsh in the lane. That left Happ on Holiday, who drove around Happ and down the right side of the lane to hit a tough shot. 
 
“I didn’t play it very well," said Happ, who had 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists. "Once Brad poked it away…I wasn’t sure if he was going to stay with him or not. And once I was matched with him, I wasn’t sitting down like I should have been."

Both teams played exceptional well for long stretches and both teams looked disjointed at other times. 

UW led by 12 points with 1:49 left in the half but went scoreless and allowed the Bruins to draw within seven points at the break.

UW then allowed too many quality shots early in the second half and the Bruins hit 4 of 6 three-pointers and 10 of 12 shots overall in building a 55-46 lead.

"We let them get too many things at the rim which allowed confidence to grow and then they hit some threes," said Gard, noting the Bruins scored 24 points on their first 11 possessions.

UW then answered with a 16-2 run to take a 62-57 lead. The lead was 65-59 after Davison hit two free throws with 3:52 left. UW then had three turnovers down the stretch, two by Iverson and one by Davison, which allowed UCLA to rally. 

“I wanted the ball in the hands of Aaron and we wanted to run a high ball screen and just see how they were going to play," UCLA coach Steve Alford said. "I saw him look at the clock as he was dribbling and he knew he had time to get the rim. Getting to the rim is one thing. Finishing over length is another thing. 

"He just made a tremendous play."