UCLA starts strong and finishes strong in win over Stanford

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA's Jaylen Hands was on a breakaway with Kris Wilkes and no Stanford defenders in the area. Hands got creative and took a play out of his high school playbook of fancy, crowd-pleasing moves.

He used a between-the-legs alleyoop pass to Wilkes for a basket.

"I got the rebound, and I saw Kris running and I remember I had a lot of space, so I was like, `I've got to do something crazy,' " Hands said. "I didn't know what to do and it just came into my head."

That was the signature play of the game and defined all the fun to be had for the Bruins in their 89-73 win over the Cardinal on Saturday night.

Before that, Wilkes had a windmill dunk. It was that kind of night for the Bruins.

Aaron Holiday scored 21 points and Wilkes added 18 while Thomas Welsh had a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists.

UCLA (15-7, 6-4 Pac-12 Conference) has won consecutive games to get back on track after losing three in a row. Stanford (11-11, 5-4) has now lost three straight games after winning five of its first six league games.

The lasting memory was Hands' showboating play.

"It's Hollywood," UCLA coach Steve Alford said. "I liked that. I'm glad that was very successful, by the way ... They were having fun. We try to tell them when we get these stops it's fun, because now we get out and run. We're a good transition team."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sat courtside for all those dunks. Dunking was banned in 1967 following Jabbar's dunkfest through college basketball the year before.

Asked what they thought Abdul-Jabbar would've thought about their dunks, Prince Ali said: "I probably should've looked over there."

Freshman Daejon Davis led Stanford with a career-high 23 points, and Dorian Pickens added 16.

Stanford allowed UCLA to shoot 53 percent from the field and so many of those were uncontested, high-percentage shots.

"We really struggled defending," Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. "UCLA has a ton of weapons, and we really didn't defend. Our ineffectiveness on defense led to transition baskets."

But Stanford's failure to defend UCLA's transition game was its demise.

"I felt we could've competed harder," Davis said. "Coach told us it was going to be a dog fight. We knew that when we took care of business at home, these two (road) games were going to be tough. We just lacked the competitive edge that we had in our five-game winning streak. I just felt like they really got out in transition. Also, on defense, I felt we were one step slow."

Holiday had seven points in a 14-0 run that gave the Bruins a 38-27 lead. UCLA extended it to a 49-36 at halftime and added to it in the second half, coming out of halftime with even more offensive fireworks to lead by 22 with 11:40 to play.

Early in the second half, UCLA had a 3-on-0 breakaway, and Wilkes threw down a windmill dunk. Not long after that, Hands made his highlight-reel pass.

"At first I was like ohhhhh, then we he connected on it, I was like OK," Ali said, laughing. "I liked it."

UCLA has won each of its last 12 home games against Stanford, 11 of which have been at Pauley Pavilion. When the teams met three weeks ago in Palo Alto, UCLA squandered a second-half lead and lost in double overtime.

Welsh, who sustained a knee injury in UCLA's win over Cal on Thursday but returned in that game, was in the starting lineup. He had two dunks in the first half, showing his knee was doing fine.

BIG PICTURE

Stanford: The Cardinal will return home for home games against the Oregon schools in hopes of regaining its strength in the Pac-12 standings.

UCLA: The Bruins made a habit of starting slow in games recently but not this time. ... They surely were inspired by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the 1968 national championship team that was honored at halftime of its 50th anniversary season. The Bruins have 11 NCAA championships.

BOARDS DOMINANCE

Welsh surpassed 900 career rebounds to move into 6th on UCLA's all-time rebounding list. Bill Walton is No. 1 in that department with 1,370. Welsh, who wears a mask on his face, had another double-double, prompting Alford to say, "He leads the country in double doubles with a mask on."

ONLY IN LA

During the game, the public address announcer said there was a white Porsche running with the doors locked in a parking garage near Pauley Pavilion.

UP NEXT

Stanford: hosts Oregon State on Thursday.

UCLA: hosts USC on Saturday.

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