UCLA sophomore’s redemption delivers Pac-12 title over Arizona

Not only did Jordan Adams help UCLA win a Pac-12 championship with one of the biggest shots of his life, the sophomore also exorcised some demons.

Adams buried a 3-pointer from just left of the top of the key to break a tie and help the second-seeded Bruins to a 75-71 win over top-seeded Arizona on Saturday in the championship game of the conference tournament at the MGM Grand.

The teams had been tied 68-68 for more than three minutes, trading turnovers and missed shots on both ends of the floor when UCLA (26-8) seized possession of the ball and called timeout.

With 54 seconds remaining, Bruins coach Steve Alford decided he wanted his team to try a quick shot and try to trade two possessions for one.

He called what the team refers to as its “money play.”

“If we would have taken 20 seconds, make or miss, they get the last shot. We didn’t want that,” Alford said. “I come into the huddle and I say, ‘How about money?’ These guys are cheering and jumping around. When you have a team that excited to run something, you’re crazy as a coach not to at least try it.”

Adams saw it as a chance for redemption. He missed a similar shot the only time the teams met in the regular season, in January, and had thought about it since.

“I missed that shot in-and-out, and it haunted me,” said Adams, the Bruins’ leading scorer. “I always told myself if I got another chance, I would knock it down.”

This time, the shot found the bottom of the net.

Aaron Gordon missed a rushed 3 at the other end, then, after UCLA missed the front end of a one-and-one, Arizona’s Nick Johnson had his attempt blocked and Gabe York came up short from the wing.

UCLA’s David Wear made two free throws and Johnson hit a 3-pointer before Norman Powell made two free throws for the Bruins in the final second.

But Adams’ 3-pointer was most responsible for helping Alford win his third straight conference tournament in Las Vegas after doing the same with New Mexico of the Mountain West in 2012 and 2013.

“It’s all about the players,” Alford said. “You can draw up whatever you want to draw up. Players have to make plays, and our players have been doing a good job of making plays all year.”

The Bruins were making plenty of plays early Saturday. And just about every shot.

UCLA made 13 of its first 20 shots and led by 11 points twice in the first half against an Arizona team that had limited its first two opponents in the tournament to less than 30 percent shooting.

“The one point I made to our guys is (whether we won or lost today), this deal is about next week,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “One of the lessons that I feel like we really learned that will help us in the NCAA Tournament is they shot 58 percent in the first half and at times looked like we couldn’t guard them. We were much better defensively in the second half, but we can’t warm up for the first eight or 10 minutes, spot them some baskets that we normally don’t and then expect to win in March.”

Powell was the biggest problem for the Wildcats early. He had 11 points in the first 10 minutes in staking the Bruins to a 26-18 lead. He finished with 15 points, and Adams had 19 points, four rebounds and four assists.

But Kyle Anderson carried UCLA most of the game.

The 6-foot-9-inch sophomore point guard had 21 points, 15 rebounds and five assists, none bigger than when he hit Adams for the decisive 3-pointer.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen (those numbers) and just one turnover for a point guard,” Miller said. “That guy is a heck of a player.”

So is Adams. Alford heaped praise upon his sophomore guards after they helped beat what he called “one of the two best teams in America all season long.”

“The game Kyle had, and Jordan and like he talked about, same team, same scenario, he missed the shot at home, to have the toughness to come back and take that shot in this environment again and make it, speaks volumes about what these two young men mean to our team,” Alford said.

UCLA now will wait to learn its seed today in the NCAA Tournament. Arizona (30-4) also must wait but is expected to be a No. 1 seed.

“It’s obviously tough to lose this one because this was a big game for us, but ultimately it’s about the NCAA Tournament. I mean, that was our overall goal,” said Johnson, a Findlay Prep product who had a game-high 22 points. “So we’ve just got to learn lessons from what we did today and take it into the tournament.”

Kaleb Tarczewski had 12 points and Gordon 11 points and eight rebounds for the Wildcats, who made just 6 of 16 from the free-throw line.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.