A herculean comeback effort fell just short for Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats, who ended up falling 84-75 to the UCLA Bruins on Monday evening in Las Vegas.
The season got off to a horrific start for Arizona, who went down 27-13 in the first ten minutes and never fully recovered, heading into halftime with a 13 point deficit that they managed to cut to one late in the second half, before costly turnovers gave UCLA the victory.
Ivan Kharchenkov was exceptional for Arizona in the first game of his sophomore season, but preseason All-American Mo Krivas (eight points, nine rebounds) and star freshman Caleb Holt (seven points, 2-7 shooting) both struggled with UCLA’s physicality, and the Bruins turned 16 offensive rebounds into 19 second chance points…