#9 UCLA Bruins Use Strong First Half to Beat Washington, 70-61
#9 UCLA Bruins Use Strong First Half to Beat Washington, 70-61
The Bruins took their foot off the gas again in the second half, but the Huskies couldn't get close enough to make this much of a game.
Let’s start tonight’s postgame with the good news, shall we? UCLA won their 20th consecutive home game tonight by beating Washington, 70-61. The win ends the Bruins’ second two-game skid of the season.
They won tonight despite being outscored 39-32 in the second half because they built up a 16-point halftime lead and half of that lead came in the first three minutes and fifteen seconds of the game.
That’s when the Bruins opened the game with an 8-0 run on two shots by Jaylen Clark followed by two from Amari Bailey. While Washington was able to close that gap to six points on four different occasions, UCLA used a 12-0 run to push their lead to 18 points when Bailey tossed the ball to Adem Bona for a dunk with 7:14 left in the half.
The closest Washington would get in the remainder of the first half was 11 points down with 1:22 left as the Bruins just continued to answer every attempt the Huskies made to come back. In fact, UCLA finished the half with a 5-0 mini-run.
In the second half, it took the Huskies almost twelve minutes to get the Bruins’ lead down under ten points. Finally, with 8:14 left, PJ Fuller hit a three which cut UCLA’s lead to nine, 54-45.
Down the stretch, the Huskies kept whittling away and Bruin fans were left with a sense of déjà vu as they wondered if this game was going to get even closer like too many of UCLA’s other recent games.
With 2:13 to go, Washington had cut the lead again, this time to seven points, 64-57, on a pair of free throws from Jamal Bey. And, when Keion Brooks hit a three-pointer with 33 seconds left, it was down to a two-possession game and a six-point Bruin lead, 67-61.
But David Singleton, UCLA’s best free shooter, came through by making three of four shots from the charity stripe in those last 33 seconds to give the Bruins their 20th consecutive win at home.
Washington’s Keion Brooks led all scorers in this one with 23 points, while four of UCLA’s five starters ended the game in double figures. Jaime Jaquez, Jr. led the Bruins with 15 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Bailey tallied 13 points. Tyger Campbell added 11 while Adem Bona scored 10 points. Only Jaylen Clark who finished with nine points was the only starter not scoring in double figures. Singleton also had nine coming off the bench.
I’m not sure exactly what teams are putting into their halftime Gatorade to make them play so well in the second half against these Bruins, but if Mick Cronin can find a way to slip it into the Bruins’ halftime drinks, UCLA fans will be happy to avoid more close calls. They may be able to keep getting by building up a big lead at halftime which opposing teams are unable to overcome, but the Bruins need to find a way to stop teams from making a comeback in the second half.
To be sure, tonight’s game was a win but the Bruins shouldn’t accept in a win what would be unacceptable in a loss. Coming off two blown games in a row, UCLA still needs to work on doing a better job stopping opponents in the second half.
Go Bruins!!!
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UCLA played an ok game… way too many turnovers. But I will say that they also made possible a lot of the looks they had. They did something different on offense and passed it around…. Yeah they forced it, but I would prefer that to aimless dribbling any day of the week
Cronin put the blame squarely on Tyger and Jaime today. From Ben Bolch:
"Eighteen turnovers to me is like 25 to other coaches, so beyond unacceptable. Our supposed best two players got nine turnovers, and all of them unforced. At no point did they get trapped, so those two single-handedly let the other team back in the game."
My opinion is that if we continue to play disinterested, we’re in danger of losing the next game too. But WSU went into todays game with only 7 scholarship players as a huge chunk of the team was out due to illness so a lot of their remaining players like Gueye played heavy minutes. Hopefully we can turn that to our advantage