Postgame Talk: Xavier Booker Explodes, UCLA Bounces Back for 98-66 Victory Over Rutgers
The junior post scored a career-high 24 points and went 10-11 from the field in the victory.
Coming off a disheartening loss to Indiana in double-OT on Saturday, it would not have been shocking to see UCLA come out in this game and struggle, letting the bad vibes of that loss carry over. And, for a brief moment, it did seem like that would happen, as an early Bruin lead evaporated under a hail of poor defensive effort.
But if there was any takeaway from this game, it may be that the team’s mental fortitude is improving, as the Bruins went on a 7-0 run to retake a lead, and they would spend the rest of the game continually growing that lead until the final buzzer sounded, finishing with a 98-66 victory over Rutgers.
The story of the game, just from a scoring perspective, is Xavier Booker. Booker continues to show growth in this recent stretch of play, and tonight was a great example of his offensive game improving. We’ve known he can hit a three-pointer, and he was set up with four perfectly open looks that he knocked down, but what was more impressive was his ability to score inside. Rutgers lacks a true interior defender like some of the heavyweights in the conference, but it was still a great sign of development how smooth and in control Booker looked when he got the ball in the post. Booker finished with a career-high 24 points on an impressive 10-11 shooting performance. UCLA does not need Booker to score at this level every game, but if he can pair this improved offensive performance with some more steady play on the defensive end (especially necessary given the recent devolution of Steven Jamerson’s game in recent weeks), then that would help to raise the ceiling of this UCLA squad considerably.
The rest of the UCLA offense looked like a well-oiled machine, which was a nice bounce-back after a loss that could easily be pinned on a bad shooting stretch. The Bruins shot 55.6% from the field, with all five starters scoring in double-digits. Donovan Dent put up a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists, and even hit a three-pointer as he continues to show more confidence in his outside shot. Trent Perry took a backseat on scoring but still hit four of his six total shots, and more importantly, had seven rebounds to tie Tyler Bilodeau for the team-high. Bilodeau was his usual efficient self with 19 points, and it might be a good time to note that he is having an elite offensive season, shooting 44.3% from three on the highest volume of his career (he’s already made more threes this year than he did all of last year, and he’s done so in 13 fewer games). Eric Dailey had one of his better offensive performances of the year, though his rebounding did leave something to be desired.
The defense…well, in the second half, it was honestly pretty good. Rutgers shot 32% from the field in the second half and struggled to rebound the ball, being limited to only 14 rebounds in the half. UCLA shut things down on the interior, forcing a bad shooting Rutgers squad to take over a third of their shots (10 of a total 25) in the half from deep, where they only made one attempt.
The flip side to this is that the first-half defense was largely bad. Rutgers shot 43.6% for the entire game, which should hopefully give all of the South Campus alumni here a pretty good indicator of how bad the first half went (for the North Campus folks: Rutgers shot 53.3% from the field in the first half). Part of the problem was the defensive effort against freshman point guard Kaden Powers, who lit the Bruins up to the tune of 18 points in the first half. This is where the loss of Skyy Clark was acutely felt; Clark is by far UCLA’s best defender at the guard position, whereas Dent and Perry are not nearly as good. In addition, with Clark out, Dent and Perry have had to carry more of the playing time and offensive load, which has meant they have struggled on the defensive end as a bit of compensation. The return of Clark can’t come soon enough just to fix the rotation.
(Look, Lonzo Ball was in the house, so you can’t fault the team for honoring him with a traditional Alford-era performance of all offense and no defense).
All of that said, it is still a good sign that UCLA did not just win this game, but won it so handily that Anthony Peoples Jr. scored a basket. Rutgers is not a good team by any stretch, but it was important that UCLA treated them like a bad team and put them to bed early in the second half. If this team can take the heartbreak of its loss to Indiana and grow from it, there may still be hope.
Now we’ll see if that momentum can continue going forward.
Go Bruins!
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