UCLA Basketball: Malcolm Lee expected to play despite small cartilage tear

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UCLA Coach Ben Howland said Tuesday morning that he expected junior guard Malcolm Lee to be able to play in the Bruins’ Pacific Life Pacific 10 Conference tournament quarterfinal Thursday despite being diagnosed with a small cartilage tear in his left knee.

‘He should be able to play with that and play through it,’ Howland said. ‘It’s been done a lot. I think he’s going to be fine.’

Lee, the Bruins’ second-leading scorer and top perimeter defender, hurt the knee Saturday when he fell hard underneath the basket on UCLA’s final offensive possession of regulation during its 58-54 overtime victory against Washington State. Lee kept playing with the injury, making two free throws with 8.9 seconds left in regulation and four more in the final 6.9 seconds of overtime.

On Thursday, UCLA will play the winner of the game between seventh-seeded Oregon and No. 10-seeded Arizona State, which play on Wednesday night.

-- Ben Bolch