Even though he whipped some dazzling passes through traffic, threw a pair of pinpoint lobs and knocked down one of his trademark deep jumpers, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball wasn’t the best freshman guard on the floor Friday night.
In fact, he may not have been the second best either.
Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk upstaged Ball with a performance that solidified them the nation’s premier backcourt duo. They combined for 60 points as the second-seeded Wildcats swept aside third-seeded UCLA 86-75 to advance to the Elite Eight for the sixth time in John Calipari’s eight-year tenure.
Fox exposed UCLA’s defensive shortcomings over and over again, blowing past flat-footed defenders off the dribble and finishing with ease in the lane. The Bruins neither had a guard quick enough to stay in front of him, nor a rim protector capable of altering his shots in the paint.
Thirty-nine points were a season high for Fox, who made 13 of 20 field goal attempts and 13 of 15 foul shots. UCLA coach In a halftime interview with CBS, Steve Alford said with a straight face that it was a good sign for his team that Fox only had one first-half assist, but that was mostly because UCLA’s suspect defense gave him no reason to pass when he knifed into the lane.
Monk wasn’t as consistently unstoppable as Fox, but the 6-foot-3 shooting guard erupted for 15 of his 21 points in one seven-minute stretch. That barrage of jump shots helped the Wildcats open a three-point halftime lead and then expand it to six just four minutes into the second half.
The deft passing of Ball, the outside shooting of Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton and the versatile scoring of T.J. Leaf kept UCLA competitive for awhile, but the Bruins’ prolific offense was never dialed-in enough to make up for their swiss-cheese defense. They fell behind by double figures midway through the second half and never mounted much of a charge.
When UCLA collapsed on Fox, Isaiah Briscoe or Bam Adebayo in the paint, they fed open jump shooters spotted up behind the arc. Monk, Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis each hit multiple 3-pointers as the Wildcats shot a blistering 10-for-23 from behind the arc.
Kentucky’s victory avenges a 97-92 home loss to UCLA in December. Having now eliminated powerful Wichita State and UCLA, the Wildcats will continue their South Region gauntlet with a rematch against North Carolina in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
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