Feb. 15, 2007
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Arron Afflalo scored 24 points, Darren Collison added 18 and No. 5 UCLA rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat Arizona State 67-61 Thursday night.
Trailing 49-39 with 10:24 to play, the Bruins took command with an 18-2 run, with Darren Collison hitting three 3-pointers and Afflalo another to put UCLA ahead 57-51.
Arizona State pulled to 63-61 on Serge Angounou's 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, but Afflalo hit two free throws and Josh Shipp added two more to ice the win.
Afflalo has scored in double figures in 24 straight games, the longest active streak in the Pac-10.
UCLA (22-3, 11-2 Pac-10) bounced back from a 70-65 loss at West Virginia on Saturday, and the Bruins remained atop the Pac-10, a half-game ahead of No. 10 Washington State.
Jeff Pendergraph scored 14 points and Alan Morill added 11 for Arizona State (6-20, 0-14), which lost its school-record 15th straight game. UCLA has beaten Arizona State six straight times.
Afflalo scored 13 consecutive points - nine on 3-pointers - midway through the first half. He finished the half with 15 points, but only two other Bruins scored as UCLA seemed baffled by Arizona State's tenacious zone defense.
The Sun Devils went on a 7-0 run to take a 21-17 lead on Pendergraph's 3-point play with 10:10 to go. After trailing for much of the half, UCLA scored the final four points on a basket by Afflalo and a fullcourt drive by Collison, who laid the ball in at the buzzer to send the Bruins into the locker room with a 34-31 lead.
Arizona State point guard Derek Glasser got sick at halftime but started the second half. Glasser looked fine when he hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the Sun Devils opened the second half with a 7-0 run.
UCLA had one basket, five missed shots and three turnovers in its first seven possessions after intermission, and coach Ben Howland burned two timeouts trying to wake up his team. Howland called his last timeout with 6:47 to play.
The Sun Devils took a 49-39 lead, and the Wells Fargo Arena crowd of 8,071 was howling for the upset. But UCLA answered with the 18-2 run, with Collison hitting three 3-pointers and Afflalo another.
Still, Arizona State wouldn't go away. Christian Polk banked in a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left to cut UCLA's lead to 59-56. Arizona State went 10:14 without a basket until Polk's improbable shot.
UCLA made 10 consecutive free throws in the final 54 seconds to keep the Sun Devils at bay. Arizona State is 2-11 in games decided by five points or fewer.