Alford still winning in Las Vegas

Steve Alford has a new job in a new conference with a whole new set of players.

Yet he finds himself in a very familiar spot today as he prepares to lead his team into a conference tournament championship game in Las Vegas.

Alford’s second-seeded UCLA Bruins defeated sixth-seeded Stanford 84-59 Friday night in the second semifinal of the Pac-12 tournament at the MGM Grand Garden.

UCLA (25-8) will play top-seeded Arizona, a 63-43 winner over fifth-seeded Colorado in Friday’s first semifinal, in today’s 3 p.m. championship game.

Alford led New Mexico to the championship game of the Mountain West tournament each of the past two seasons down the road at Thomas &Mack Center, partly paving the way for his hiring in Los Angeles.

“We’re obviously excited to be in the first year of our program have an opportunity to win a Pac-12 championship. That’s exciting,” Alford said. “UCLA is all about March. We wanted that challenge, we wanted that opportunity and we’ve embraced that and I hope our kids are embracing that and enjoying that, too.”

The Bruins raced out to a 24-5 lead on Stanford and never trailed, maintaining at least a 20-point lead for most of the second half.

Norman Powell scored 22 points to lead UCLA. Travis Wear made all eight shots he attempted and finished with 16 points.

Dwight Powell scored 16 points to lead the Cardinal (21-12).

The Lobos were able to finish the task the last two years and cut down the nets — with Alford famously adorning the nylon around his neck at post-game news conferences — each of the last two seasons.

The task won’t be easy to replicate today.

UCLA will be up against an Arizona (30-3) team that has steamrolled its way through its first two games of the tournament.

The Wildcats held Utah to just 25.5 percent shooting in a 71-39 quarterfinal win Thursday, then followed it up by limiting Colorado (23-11), likely an NCAA Tournament team, to 29.4 percent from the field on Friday.

Arizona was particularly good in the second half. The Wildcats outscored the Buffaloes 36-19 in the second half to pull away.

“We haven’t played better basketball at any time this year than we did in the final 20 minutes today,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said of a half in which his team held Colorado to just 5 of 22 from the field.

There was one two-minute stretch that stood out even from the rest of the sparkling half. Nick Johnson caught an alley-oop pass from T.J. McConnell and was able to dunk it backwards over a defender. On the next possession, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson caught a pass from McConnell in the lane and threw down a one-handed dunk. Then came a block by freshman Aaron Gordon on a dunk attempt by Colorado’s Xavier Johnson.

It was all part of a 24-6 run that helped put the game away.

“In the second half, that thing got away from us quick,” Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle said. “If Arizona makes shots and the way they guard consistently, they’ve got a chance to win a national championship.”

Johnson had 16 points, four assists and four rebounds for Arizona. Hollis-Jefferson finished with 12 points and eight rebounds and McConnell had 12 points, four rebounds and five assists.

“I think we’re playing really well right now. I thought we stood in the first half a lot, and in the second half our offense was a lot better. We were moving, screening, cutting. We were making open shots, and we were executing the offense,” McConnell said. “I think if we do that on a nightly basis, it’s going to be pretty tough for us to lose.”

Not a whole lot of teams have been able to beat Arizona this year, much less when they are playing at this level.

That’s the task facing UCLA today, but the Bruins appear to be peaking themselves.

Friday’s easy win came after a big second half helped UCLA to a blowout of Oregon in the quarterfinals. Arizona and UCLA met just once in the regular season, with the Wildcats coming away with a 79-75 win in Los Angeles on Jan. 9

Both losing teams from Friday expect to continue their seasons in the NCAA Tournament when at-large selections are announced on Sunday.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has both Stanford and Colorado safely in as No. 9 seeds as of late Friday night.

Stanford and UCLA have no such concerns, but one will secure the automatic bid today.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.