Bruins are unable to hold off Stanford

PALO ALTO —  The white volleyball lines taped to the hardwood floor at Maples Pavilion served as the perfect backdrop for what happened to UCLA on Sunday evening.

There were blocks. And then came the kill.

Stanford took it to the third-ranked Bruins with a pivotal 15-0 run in the second half that catapulted the Cardinal to a 75-68 upset victory in front of a sellout crowd of 7,334.

Stanford roared back from a 17-point deficit behind the play of forward Lawrence Hill and guard Anthony Goods, who combined for 34 of their 42 points in the second half.

“We have to be a little more mature in how we close teams out,” teary-eyed UCLA guard Arron Afflalo said. “You have to have a killer instinct. We recognize that every time we step on the floor, it’s a big game for the opposing team and they’re going to compete for 40 minutes. Not that we didn’t compete tonight, but we didn’t play at the level we needed to to close them out when we had the chance.”

After UCLA sophomore swingman Josh Shipp made two free throws to give the Bruins a 51-44 lead with 10 minutes 20 seconds left, the Cardinal rattled off 15 consecutive points over the next 3:53 to take a 59-51 advantage. The Bruins could draw no closer than four points the rest of the way as Stanford made 70% of its shots in the second half.

The Bruins, 18-2 overall and 7-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference, fell into a tie with No. 7 Oregon for first place in the Pac-10 at the halfway point of the conference schedule. UCLA plays host to the Ducks on Thursday at Pauley Pavilion.

Afflalo scored 17 of his 22 points in the first half for the Bruins, who had seven steals and held the Cardinal to 30% shooting in the first 20 minutes in taking a 37-25 lead.

But UCLA failed to carry over its lockdown effort into the second half, perhaps in part because over the final 9:39, its front line of Lorenzo Mata, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alfred Aboya all had to play with four fouls.

“We lost intensity,” said UCLA sophomore point guard Darren Collison, who had 17 points but failed to convert on several second-half fastbreak opportunities. “I don’t really know what happened. We were up by [17] and I thought we got a little bit complacent. It happens, but you can’t let it happen.”

Although the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, weren’t nearly the menace they had been against USC, when they combined for 24 points and 15 of Stanford’s school-record 19 blocks, the Cardinal found two potent offensive weapons in Hill and Goods. Hill hurt the Bruins with dribble penetration en route to 22 points on eight-for-10 shooting, and Goods made four of seven three-pointers on the way to 20 points.

“When you take away something you give up something else, and obviously Hill and Goods both played very well,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said.

Brook Lopez had seven points, eight rebounds and one blocked shot and Robin Lopez had six points, six rebounds and one blocked shot.

Howland said he sensed the momentum beginning to shift late in the first half, when the Bruins took a shot too quickly on a late possession instead of running down the clock. Stanford guard Kenny Brown responded on the other end by making a three-pointer to close the gap to 12.

The Cardinal (14-5, 6-3) opened the second half by scoring five of the first seven points before embarking on its extended run with about 10 minutes to go.

Stanford did a much better job of getting to the foul line in the final 20 minutes, making 18 of 25 second-half attempts.

“We kept fighting, but that run they went on, it lasted way too long,” Afflalo said. “You have to find a way to get that to a halt and bounce back from it.”

Said Mbah a Moute: “They just came out harder. They wanted to win, and we didn’t match their intensity. That’s something we have to learn from.”

*

ben.bolch@latimes.com