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Cal-Poly 70, UCLA 68: Pauley Crowd Silenced By Poor Showing

The UCLA Bruins led by as many as 18 points, but eventually managed to fritter away a 10-point lead in the last six minutes against Cal Poly in a shocker on their home court.

Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE

With 12:21 to play, the UCLA Bruins led the Cal-Poly Mustangs by a healthy 51-33 margin after a pair of free throws by Shabazz Muhammad, and even when Brian Bennett put back a dunk heading into the TV timeout, it sure looked like an insurmountable 16-point advantage when the return from commercial showed 51-35 in favor of the Bruins.

Then everything changed. The Mustangs, who had shot 21 percent (3-for-14) from 3-point range until that juncture, lit up from behind the arc to the tune of 55 percent (6-for-11) from then out, essentially erasing the deficit by the under-four TV timeout. The Bruins, on the other hand, turned a 53 percent field goal percentage that created the lead into a 29 percent (5-for-17) performance down the stretch.

This included a ghostly showing by supposed stud freshman Muhammad, who had as many missed shots (2) as he did points (on a trip to the free throw line) over the final 12 minutes of the game. When you factor in that it was a home game, this is a truly ugly showing for the Bruins, who will need to do some quick sorting out before they play Cal-Northridge on Thursday night.