Nothing gets girls to a basketball game quite like Taylor Lautner. On Thursday, January 24th, Taylor Lautner joined the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion to cheer on the Men’s Basketball team as they played the Stanford Cardinals. Students were informed of his plans to come through an email from “The Den” the week prior.

            During the traditional UCLA Roll Call, Lautner walked into the gym right past the students section and all eyes were on him, Roll Call completely forgotten. The pictures began, and soon after, fans were on the move. Swarms of girls rushed from the stands to his courtside seat to try to meet him. However, security pushed fans away and had them go back to their seats.

            “All of my friends definitely tried to meet him several times,” stated Amanda DeGruccio, member of Gamma Phi Beta. “I was just yelling at my phone to zoom more.”

            During the game, Lautner cheered and sighed along with the Bruins, smiled and waved at fans who acknowledged him from the big screen, and took photos with VIPs, the Women’s Soccer team, the Cheer team, and the occasional sneaky fan.

           The bailiff from Judge Judy was one of the VIPs able to get a picture with Lautner and helped get two fans in as well.

            “Security thought we were just being two crazy students trying to take a picture and wouldn’t let us through, but the bailiff told them it was okay to come through,” said Sydney Fong, member of Kappa Delta. (see photo).         

            To many fans, it seemed that Taylor was happy to meet everyone and expected the attention.

            “Taylor was extremely nice,” continued Fong. “I’m sure he expected all of the attention when he decided to come to a college basketball game. I apologized for the chaos and he said, ‘It’s totally fine.’”

            When Taylor finally left the game, just before the end, the fans did not. Bruins remained in the stands to see UCLA defeat Stanford 91-74.

            Sophomore Tony Parker, of UCLA, was the leader in points scored at 22, securing the victory for the Bruins. Bruin fans were happy for a win, but memories of that game may not be centered on the athletics.

            “Well, he was shorter than I thought,” stated DeGruccio. “But I’m really glad he wore the classic Lautner black, tight shirt. I’ll never forget it.”