LOS ANGELES – The Bruins face Washington State (9-11, 1-7) on Saturday afternoon in Pauley Pavilion. Game time is 4 p.m. (PT). UCLA (12-9, 3-5) dropped an 85-78 decision at Washington State earlier this month during the first weekend of Pac-12 play. The Bruins have won their last five games at home versus Washington State.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion (13,800)
Tipoff Time: 4:06 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Networks
TV Talent: Roxy Bernstein (play-by-play), Bill Walton (analyst)
Radio: AM 570
Radio Talent: Bill Roth (play-by-play), Darrick Martin (analyst)
SIRIUS/XM Channels: Ch. 83/Ch. 197
ABOUT THE BRUINS
- The Bruins have gone 12-9, including a 3-5 mark in Pac-12 games, and have 10 regular-season games remaining ... three of UCLA's wins this season have come against teams ranked in the Associated Press top-25 poll – No. 1 Kentucky (Dec. 3), at No. 20 Gonzaga (Dec. 12) and No. 7 Arizona (Jan. 7).
- UCLA has lost three of its last four Pac-12 games after having defeated Arizona and Arizona State in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 7 and 9 ... Bryce Alford leads all UCLA players in scoring (17.2 ppg) and assists (5.3 apg) ... Isaac Hamilton has scored in double figures in the Bruins' last 17 games and has averaged 16.3 points per game this season.
- Last week, UCLA split a pair of road games at Oregon State and Oregon ... the Bruins won at Oregon State, 82-73, on Jan. 20, marking the team's first win at OSU since Jan. 13, 2011 ... UCLA dropped an 86-72 decision at Oregon on Jan. 23, as all five starters scored in double figures (led by Aaron Holiday's season-high 19 points).
- UCLA is the only Pac-12 team to have at least two scorers in the conference's top 10 (Bryce Alford at 17.2 ppg and Isaac Hamilton at 16.3 ppg) ... the Bruins are the only program with at least two players who rank in the Pac-12's top 10 rebounding leaders (Tony Parker is third with 9.9 rpg and Thomas Welsh ranks sixth with 8.6 rpg).
BRUINS TO FACE COUGARS
- UCLA faces Washington State on Saturday afternoon (4 pm, PT) ... the Bruins lead the all-time series against Washington State by a 103-17 margin ... UCLA has won its last five home games against the Cougars, with the last loss to WSU in Pauley Pavilion taking place on Feb. 21, 2009 (WSU 82, UCLA 81).
- Washington State defeated UCLA, 85-78, in the meeting in Pullman, Wash., earlier this season (Jan. 3) ... in that game, WSU claimed a 40-36 lead by halftime but the Bruins tied the contest, 40-40, to open the second half ... UCLA never led after having tied the game, as Washington State pushed its second-half lead to 13 points with 7:50 to play.
MOST RECENTLY ...
- Bryce Alford helped UCLA erase a 19-point deficit by scoring 17 of the team's final 19 points on Thursday night in an 86-84 loss at home against Washington ... Alford finished with 28 points, hitting a 3-pointer with 2:04 remaining in the second half to put UCLA ahead of the Huskies, 82-79.
- Both UCLA and Washington had to navigate through foul trouble late in the second half on Thursday night ... Washington received at least 10 points from six players ... Andrew Andrews (12 points, 8 assists) hit two free throws with 3.4 seconds to play in regulation, giving Washington an 86-84 lead.
- Tony Parker became UCLA's 53rd player in program history to have scored at least 1,000 career points, accomplishing that feat midway through the first half of the Bruins' game against Washington on Thursday ... Parker is the fourth player in the last three seasons to hit the 1,000-point plateau (also Jordan Adams, Norman Powell, Bryce Alford).
- Aaron Holiday scored a season-high 19 points in UCLA's 86-72 loss at Oregon on Jan. 23 ... the Bruins trailed at halftime, 41-31 ... UCLA's five starters each scored in double figures ... Isaac Hamilton scored in double figures for the 16th consecutive game ... Thomas Welsh registered 16 points and a team-leading eight rebounds.
- Bryce Alford has dished a conference-best 111 assists this season ... in each of his three seasons at UCLA, Alford has registered at least 100 assists (102 as a freshman, 176 as a sophomore) ... Alford has become UCLA's first player since Earl Watson (1998-2001) to have totaled 100 or more assists in each of his first three seasons.
BACKCOURT TANDEM
- Junior guards Bryce Alford (17.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 5.3 apg) and Isaac Hamilton (16.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.1 apg) have averaged 33.6 points per game, accounting for 42 percent of the Bruins' points this season.
- Hamilton has scored in double figures in the team's last 17 games ... he has totaled at least 20 points in six games this season ... Alford has scored at least 10 points in 17 games, registering 20 or more points in seven games.
- Earlier this season, Hamilton had a streak of five straight games with at least eight field goals made, the longest such streak by any UCLA player since 1991, when Tracy Murray did that in six consecutive games.
IN THE FRONTCOURT
- Senior forward/center Tony Parker has averaged 13.5 points and a team-best 9.9 rebounds per game ... Parker has grabbed 639 career rebounds in four seasons at UCLA, the 25th-highest career total in school history.
- Parker has registered a team-leading nine double-doubles, the third-highest total in the Pac-12 ... Parker, who also ranks third in the league in rebounding (9.9 rpg), has scored 1,009 career points at UCLA.
- Sophomore forward Thomas Welsh has registered 12.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, starting in 20 contests ... in a pair of road games last week, he averaged 13.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
- Parker and Welsh currently rank first and second, respectively, in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounds per game ... Parker has totaled 4.1 offensive boards per game, while Welsh has averaged 3.5 offensive rebounds per game.
- Welsh has tallied eight double-doubles in 20 games ... he totaled a career-high 16 rebounds (and scored 12 points) in UCLA's 81-74 victory against Arizona State in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 9.
WHO'S ON DECK
Following this Saturday's game against Washington State, the Bruins will play at USC on Thursday, Feb. 4. UCLA lost to USC in Pauley Pavilion by an 89-75 margin when the two teams played each other on Wednesday, Jan. 13. That marked the Bruins' second loss to USC in the last 12 meetings, as the Trojans snapped a six-game losing streak against UCLA. The Trojans raced to a 46-30 lead at halftime against UCLA, as Jordan McLaughlin led USC with a team-leading 23 points in that game. USC is set to face Washington at the Galen Center on Saturday, Jan. 30.
AT THE STRIPE
Junior guard Bryce Alford leads all Pac-12 players in free throw percentage. Alford, who entered the season having shot 82.4 percent from the free throw line, has converted a Pac-12-leading 85.5 percent of his free throws this season (94-for-110). In fact, Alford currently ranks sixth on UCLA's all-time free throw percentage list, just behind Jordan Adams (fourth place) and Reggie Miller (fifth place). Alford's current single-season percentage (85.5) is the highest by any UCLA player since 2009, when Darren Collison concluded his senior year shooting 89.7 from the line.
YEAR THREE
Steve Alford is currently in his third season as UCLA's head coach and his 25th year as a college basketball head coach. In his third year at UCLA, Alford has led the Bruins to a 62-32 overall record. After guiding the Bruins to the Pac-12 Tournament title and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2014, Alford helped UCLA engineer a second consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 last March. He has led his teams to at least 22 wins in each of the last eight years, including at least 28 wins in three of the previous four seasons (107-36 record over the previous four years).
NEWS AND NOTES
- Tony Parker (13.5 ppg, 9.9 rpg) was named in the preseason to the 2015-16 Karl Malone Award watch list, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ... the Malone Award is annually distributed to the nation's premier power forward ... Parker is one of 20 players on the preseason watch list for this award.
- Bryce Alford ranks third among Pac-12 players in scoring average (17.2 ppg) and is first in free throw percentage (85.5 pct) ... he also leads UCLA in assists (5.3 apg), assist-turnover ratio (2.36), 3-pointers made (44), free throws made (94) and minutes per game (37.0) ... he has averaged a team-leading 18.5 points per game in Pac-12 play.
- Freshman guard Aaron Holiday has started all 21 games and enters this Saturday's game having averaged 11.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game ... Aaron is the younger brother of former UCLA guard Jrue Holiday, who played as a freshman at UCLA in 2008-09 before being selected No. 17 in the 2009 NBA Draft (by Philadelphia).
- During the Bruins' eight conference games, junior guard Isaac Hamilton has averaged 18.0 points per game. In that eight-game span, he has connected on 48.6 percent of his shots (54 for 111) ... Hamilton has also shot 47.2 percent from 3-point range (17 for 36) while totaling 32 assists in those eight games.
- Sophomore forward G.G. Goloman returned from an injury on Jan. 13 and has played in the Bruins' last four games ... Goloman missed UCLA's first 17 contests with a stress fracture below his right knee) ... he played 17 minutes in the team's 82-73 win at Oregon State on Jan. 20, logging three points, three rebounds and one steal.