The UCLA Bruins’ men’s basketball team took the floor to play Long Beach State with a full tank of gas and the intensity meters peaking as the push began to establish a new identity under first-year head coach Mick Cronin. And it looked every bit the first game it was with a strange, shapeless sort of rhythm establishing itself as an offensive struggle of epic proportions hampered the Bruins for most of the night with the defense working hard to keep UCLA within striking distance.
But it was an improbable 10-2 UCLA run down the game’s final few furlongs—and fifth-year senior Prince Ali knocking down a clutch three-point shot to extend UCLA’s lead to 63-58 with 1:20 to play—that buried The Beach’s heels deep in the suddenly shifting sands.