UCLA Falls to Washington in Double OT

Parker scored 11 points and tallied nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks Friday as UCLA fell to Washington 96-93 in double-overtime on the road in Seattle. “We’ve had more experienced teams that were NCAA tournament teams that have been in that situation, where you fight hard and the game goes into overtime and they hit a shot like [junior guard Bryce] Alford hit, and mentally guys weren’t able to recover”.

Washington ran into foul trouble of its own, with Marquese Chriss fouling out with 10 minutes to play and sending Parker to the line, where he made one free throw to cut the Huskies’ lead to three, 49-46. The move, he said this week, has made rebounding easier: he’s averaging 10.3 boards per game, up from 6.7 last season.

Alford stole victories from the Huskies in regulation and the first overtime, knocking down game-tying 3-pointers with less than 20 seconds remaining in each.

Alford, who scored a team-best and season-high 30 points, hit long three-pointers at the end of the second half to send the game into overtime and then did it again at the end of the extra period to send it into double overtime. He made the first free throw, tried to miss the second but made it anyway, and the Huskies escaped with the win. Crisp’s 3-pointer with 38.8 seconds left in the second overtime gave the Huskies a 93-89 lead.

“There’s a swag to them”, said third-year head coach Steve Alford said of his players. He was not good at leading this team in the first half. “Tonight we recovered twice in overtime”. They shot 90 free throws, 50 by UCLA.

Entering conference play, UCLA has won six of last its last seven games, including a home win over then-No.

Washington (9-4, 1-0) held on in the closing seconds of the second overtime to win the Pac-12 Conference opener for both schools on a night where the sounds of the officiating whistles dominated.

Here’s the postgame video with Andrews and freshman guard Matisse Thybulle, who had 13 points. A basket by Alford with 4:37 to play pulled UCLA to within two, 62-60, and a Welsh dunk with 3:03 to play tied the game.

“That was one of my worst nights in my career going into the last minute of the game”, Bryce Alford said. “You’ve got to have confidence you can help your team and when my team needs me I think that’s when I’m best”.

“This was by far the most intense game I’ve played in”, Thybulle said.

Dime finished with 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench, his third straight game in double figures.

Alford has become the 52nd player in program history to have scored at least 1,000 points during his UCLA career. We wouldn’t say the defensive effort was necessarily bad, or so bad that it was the reason UCLA lost. “We just hope it’s sooner than later that we get him back in the fold”.

NOTES: Both teams struggled to score in the early going.

Southern California 90, Washington State 77: PULLMAN, Wash. Isaac Hamilton added 15 points and Tony Parker had 11 but was just 3-of-14 shooting.