Westwood News
UCLA Battles Arizona State In Tournament
By Luis Cuevas
Mar 14, 2013 - 4:02:38 PM

WESTWOOD— On Thursday, March 14, UCLA will battle Arizona State in a Pac-12 tournament quarterfinal game at the MGM Grand Arena. UCLA will battle history and a less desirable match-up against the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Shabazz Muhammad

UCLA split the first two match-ups against Arizona State. The first game UCLA lost by 18 points to Arizona in that game Arizona’s center Jordan Bachynski had a 22 points and 15 rebounds game to rout UCLA.

During the second game, UCLA needed overtime to finish off the Sun Devils. If Arizona State wins the game over UCLA regular season champions they will receive a NCAA tournament berth. UCLA is already locked in for a position but they still has a chance to improve seeding and geography.

Only three teams have been Pac-12 regular season champions and won the post-season tournament since the conference was reinstated in 2001. UCLA is one of the teams that have done it twice in 2006 and 2008.

Arizona state players have been anticipating the game since their win over Stanford in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament. UCLA finished the regular season at the top of the Pac-12 with a (23-8) record, and Arizona Sun Devils finished with (21-11) record.