ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Bryce Alford's volume-shooting days are over.
It hasn't taken the UCLA senior long to figure out how to make his shots count.
Alford buried a clutch 3-pointer with 1:11 to play in the Wooden Legacy championship game, the decisive basket in UCLA's 74-67 win over Texas A&M at Honda Center Sunday night.
Freshman point guard Lonzo Ball, who tallied 16 points and 10 assists on his way to earning the Wooden Legacy MVP, is the type of talent that is altering Alford's role.
The sum of the parts is a No. 14 ranking and undefeated record for UCLA, which braved its toughest competition of the season in the Wooden Legacy.
Alford finished with 13 points, but scored UCLA's last seven, part of a game-deciding sequence in the final two minutes that included a steal after his 3-pointer and four free throws to ice the victory.
UCLA's other senior guard, the top returning scorer in the Pac-12 this season, was equally important Sunday night. Isaac Hamilton scored all 17 of his points in the first half as UCLA's freshmen adjusted to the feel of a championship game, exemplified by Ball's 1-for-7 start from the field.
Hamilton took just six shots in the second half. Alford took seven shots all game.
Four Bruins reached double figures, including the other high profile freshman. Forward T.J. Leaf had 13 points and nine rebounds against the most physical frontcourt UCLA had faced this season.
Led by preseason first team All-SEC center Tyler Davis, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound center who had 16 points and nine rebounds, Texas A&M has 32 points in the paint to UCLA's 20.
The Aggies (4-2), whose only loss entering the game was a two-point defeat at the hands of USC on Nov. 18, scored 12 of their first 20 points in the paint and led by nine less than five minutes in.
Once UCLA began to double-team Davis, the sophomore managed just eight more points the rest of the game.
Neither Texas A&M's zone nor man defense could contain Hamilton, who finished the first half 7 of 9 from the field. With three and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Hamilton was shooting 78 percent from the field. The rest of the Bruins combined to shoot 33 percent.
UCLA's senior guard scored 10 consecutive UCLA points to finish a 21-9 run that pulled the Bruins out of an early hole to give them a 25-20 lead.
Ball missed his first four 3-pointers, but he made consecutive shots from beyond the arc to give UCLA a 35-34 lead at the half.
The Bruins opened the second half with an 8-0 run punctuated by consecutive 3-pointers from Alford and Leaf for their largest lead of the night, 43-34.
Texas A&M didn't go away, clawing its way back into the game and eventually taking its first lead of the second half, 51-50, with 10:45 to play.
The Bruins mounted another run, taking a 60-53 lead with 6:24 to play thanks to a 3-pointer and driving lay-up by Ball on consecutive trips down the court followed by a second-chance basket from Leaf.
The lead changed hands four times and twice the score was tied in a 3 {-minute stretch, but UCLA took the lead for good on a Leaf jumper with two minutes left in the game.
