Campbell and Jaquez Lead UCLA Past UC Berkeley, 60-52
The Bruins handled their business in the second half to hold off the Golden Bears.
For most of the first half, tonight’s game was competitive, but then the Bruins took control and cruised to an easy ten-point win on the road.
Through the first eight minutes, there were three ties, but UCLA didn’t trail in this one until there was 11:53 when UC Berkeley briefly took an 11-9 lead. Over the next six and a half minutes, the Golden Bears only allowed the Bruins to take the lead twice.
The first time came with 9:08 left when UCLA got a three-pointer from David Singleton to take an 14-13 lead. That lead only lasted for 20 seconds, though, and the Bruins wouldn’t lead again until there was 5:24 left in the first half when Tyger Campbell hit a jumper to take a 20-19 lead.
That shot was the start of a 11-2 run by UCLA which put the Bruins up 29-21 with 1:28 to go in the half. UC Berkeley was able to cut the lead by two before the half and UCLA led, 31-25, at the half.
The second half belonged to the Bruins as UCLA never relinquished the lead, though the Golden Bears were able to cut it to two twice. The second time came with 15:52 to go with the Bruins up, 33-31.
UCLA stepped on the gas a little from that point and with 5:14 left in the game, the Bruins had opened up a 13-point lead, their biggest of the game, and they led 52-39.
From there, the Bruins did exactly what they needed to do to hold off the Golden Bears. That included a three from Johnny Juzang with 3:28 to go that proved to be the winning basket for UCLA.
Probably the most important thing here is that the Bruins never really allowed UC Berkeley to get back into the game over the final 15 minutes. Could UCLA have pushed and beaten the Bears by more? More than likely, but the more important thing here is that the team went on the road for just the third time this season and they are coming back home with another win.
Was it flashy? Nope, but it was another building block on top of Thursday’s win over Long Beach State.
This team is going to continue to get better as the season goes along and the team gets back into a rhythm like they had at the end of last season. They did what they had to do and they finished the game and that’s what matters.
Tyger Campbell led the Bruins with 17 points while UC Berkeley’s Andre Kelly led all scorers with 22 points. Jaime Jaquez, Jr. finished with 14 points as well. Jules Bernard led UCLA with 7 rebounds while Cody Riley added 5 more.
At this point, UCLA’s next game is scheduled for Thursday against Oregon at Pauley Pavilion at 6:30 pm PT on ESPN, but as we’ve learned over the past month, that schedule is subject to change.
Go Bruins!!!
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Went to the game and while it wasn't pretty at times, it is always amazing to see this team play in person. It is a special group indeed. There were a lot of Bruins fans in attendance which was awesome.
UCLA didn’t shoot the 3 well, they didn’t rebound well, but they seemed to have a game plan of forcing cal to play inside and it worked pretty well. Defensively, this was still a good game in my opinion. Jaquez and Campbell definitely carried the offense…. And singleton made all of his shots as well. He could use more minutes when his shot is falling. He’s gotten more aggressive on penetrating as well, which keeps the opposition honest. Defensively, nobody was going to stop Kelley on the boards! He’s pretty good, and it’s unfortunate they don’t have more pieces to complement his play style.
Go bruins!