LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) – UCLA missed shots, threw sloppy passes, seemingly had no chance at stopping Kansas on defense.
Then something happened: The Bruins’ shots started falling, the Jayhawks were missing theirs and the lead quickly dwindled.
UCLA just couldn’t sustain it – not after falling into that big of a hole.
The Bruins trimmed a 20-point lead down to five before running out of steam in a 72-56 loss to No. 14 Kansas in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational on Tuesday night.
“We can’t keep coming back and trying to come back – it’s difficult to get over that hill,” said Jerime Anderson, who had 14 points. “I’m very inspired by our team’s comeback and our will and our fight, but we just need to put ourselves in a better position to win the game.”
Kansas looked unbeatable early and flustered in the middle before securing a hard-earned victory.
All that work just to face an even more formidable challenge: No. 6 Duke, the undisputed king of Maui, in the championship game.
Two of college basketball’s blue bloods in paradise, playing with a title on the line in a tiny gym in an atmosphere unlike any other.
Yeah, this could be good.
“I will bet the atmosphere for tomorrow night’s game will be as good an atmosphere as this building’s seen for this tournament,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “And this may be as good a neutral-court atmosphere as there is in college basketball, better than the NCAA tournament because you can feel the crowd.”
The Jayhawks almost blew their shot.
Kansas (3-1) looked as though it was going to run away from the Bruins at the start, going up 12 points in the first 6 minutes and building from there.
The Jayhawks fizzled with a flurry of turnovers and defensive breakdowns to let UCLA back in it, then pulled away over the final 5 minutes for a harder-than-expected victory.
Elijah Johnson scored 23 points, Thomas Robinson had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Tyshawn Taylor added 13 points and six assists for Kansas.
Next up for the Jayhawks is Duke, the undefeated four-time champions in Maui in what could be one of the most exciting championship games in the 28-year history of the Maui Invitational.
“This is one of the games when you come to Kansas, you sign up for,” Taylor said. “This is one of those games we’ll probably always remember.”
The Bruins tried to ruin it.
UCLA (1-3) got off to a brutal start and rallied to trim a 20-point lead down to five. The Bruins lingered for a little while before running out of steam, headed toward the third-place game instead of the championship.
Tyler Lamb led UCLA with 15 points.
“We were right there,” Anderson said. “That second-half comeback is much easier if we’re even or closer in the first half. Some things don’t go our way, we come back and if a team makes another run, that’s the hardest thing to do is come back from two runs.”
Swinging the ball around in halfcourt sets and getting out on the break, the Jayhawks opened the game with a 14-2 run and kept pushing. Kansas hit 12 of 24 shots in the half – 5 of 9 from 3-point range – had 10 assists and got 13 points from Johnson to lead 43-26.
The Jayhawks still looked as though they were going to run away with it to start the second half, then went into a funk.
Unable to stop the Bruins or hold onto the ball, Kansas went nearly 6 1/2 minutes without a field goal as UCLA trimmed a 20-point lead down to five with 8 minutes left.
The Jayhawks finally put a stop to UCLA’s momentum with a couple of baskets by Robinson, then pulled away as the Bruins cooled off.
“We knew they weren’t going to just go away and lay down,” Taylor said. “We got out to a big lead early, but we knew we had to continue to play. We just had to keep battling out there.”
UCLA opened a season of expectations in disappointing fashion, losing by double digits to Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee State. The Bruins avoided a potential meltdown in the Maui opener, turning a two-point halftime lead over Division II Chaminade into a blowout.
UCLA blew the game open with a 29-3 run and turned away any thought of a comeback by blocking 12 of the Silverswords’ shots in the 92-60 victory.
But Kansas isn’t anything like Chaminade, as the Bruins learned in a hurry.
Unable to find any room against the Jayhawks’ scrambling defense, UCLA missed its first six shots, had five turnovers and just two free throws until Reeves Nelson scored on a 3-pointer at the 13:36 mark.
The best the Bruins could do after that was get within six points and Kansas didn’t let that last, storming the Bruins a second time to push the lead to 19 before the half was over.
Then something clicked for UCLA.
Forcing turnovers and stroking 3-pointers, the Bruins went on a 12-0 run midway through the second half and kept dropping shots to pull within 57-52.
That turned out to be it for UCLA, which will face No. 15 Michigan in the third-place game.
“I was really happy the way the guys fought back in the second half,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “We had it down to five … and I think we ran out of gas.”
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