LOS ANGELES — Adem Bona’s high-flying dunks had the arena rocking early, but it was Sebastian Mack and Lazar Stefanovic’s strong play late that helped the UCLA men’s basketball team recover from blowing a 14-point, second-half lead and hold off Colorado for a 64-60 win on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins (14-11 overall, 9-5 Pac-12) won their sixth consecutive game and took over sole possession of third place in the conference, passing idle Oregon with their eighth win in nine games since starting the season 6-10.
Leading 63-60 with 17 seconds to go, UCLA’s defense held up by forcing Colorado senior forward Tristan da Silva into an off-balance layup before UCLA was awarded possession of the ball after multiple players dove on the floor for a loose ball with 3.3 seconds to go. Stefanovic was fouled with 2.1 seconds remaining and made his second of two free throws, which iced the four-point victory.
Mack, a freshman guard from Chicago, finished with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Bona had 14 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore guard Dylan Andrews added 13 points, eight in the first half.
UCLA opened the second half with five straight points for its largest lead of the game, but the Buffs worked to erase it. Colorado twice tied the score, first on a dunk by da Silva and then at 54-54 on his 3-pointer.
Mack (four) and Lazar Stefanovic (five) combined to score every point during a 9-2 run for the Bruins, who took a 63-56 lead with 2:11 left.
Colorado senior center Eddie Lampkin Jr.’s layup made it 63-58 with 1:53 remaining, then freshman forward Cody Williams’ layup cut the margin to 63-60 with 52 seconds remaining.
KJ Simpson blocked a Dylan Andrews jumper out of bounds, then with the shot clock running down, Stefanovic missed a desperation 3-point attempt in front of his own bench, which would have made it a two-possession game. Colorado called a timeout as UCLA held its 63-60 lead with 17 seconds…
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