2023 Pac-12 Tournament: Freshmen Lead the Way as UCLA Beats Colorado 80-69
Amari Bailey had a career-high 26 points while Adem Bona grabbed a double-double in the win.
The first game without Jaylen Clark was always going to be a bumpy one for the Bruins, as they had to adjust on the fly to life without one of their best players while trying to prove they’re still a team deserving of a #1 seed. When you throw in how the Colorado Buffaloes have played UCLA all season, this had the makings of a really close game, and that’s what we got for most of this one. UCLA found itself in a back-and-forth affair with the Buffs for much of the afternoon, but once again hit Winning Time and were able to pull away for an 80-69 victory and a spot in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.
Credit for this game should go first to Amari Bailey, who stepped up in a major way to fill the void left by Clark. Bailey would score a career-high 26 points on 8-12 shooting, hitting two of his three outside shots while continually drawing fouls on his drives, going 8-9 from the line (the only Bruin who shot more free throws in this game was Tyger Campbell, who was aided by four attempts handed to the Bruins by a late double-technical ejection of Colorado coach Tad Boyle). Bailey also played strong individual and team defense, looking by far the most engaged of any Bruin, which is a great sign for the team going forward.
Bailey was aided in this one by his freshman partner Adem Bona, who was unreal whenever he was on the court. Bona had a double-double with 11 points on 5-8 shooting and a team-high 10 rebounds while playing generally clean basketball for most of the game, finishing with four fouls in 29 minutes of play. It was his work on the defensive end that really showcased why he won Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and was named to the All-Defense team, as he finished with three blocks and a number of deflections. I find +/- to be a poor stat, but Bona did finish with the best +/- of the team with 18, one point ahead of Bailey.
The Bruins needed those two to play well because, by and large, the seniors did not play well. Colorado certainly keyed in on Pac-12 Player of the Year Jaime Jaquez with Clark out, and Jaquez struggled in general, scoring 16 points on an inefficient 5-11 from the field, while having four of UCLA’s nine total turnovers by himself. Tyger Campbell was equally poor on offense, getting to 18 points not because of his shooting (4-11 from the field) but more because he kept getting to the free throw line, hitting nine of his 10 attempts including all four that he took thanks to Boyle’s technical. David Singleton, inserted into the starting lineup as we expected, was more miss than hit in his 35 minutes, going 2-8 from the field (all from distance).
The bench had an interesting day for the Bruins. Again as expected, Will McClendon and Dylan Andrews saw their minutes increase in this game, with McClendon playing for 16 minutes while Andrews played for 11. Both were fine defensively, but McClendon continued his terrible shooting this season by going 0-3 from the field, including an impressively bad miss from three. The more interesting shift was Mac Etienne getting the backup minutes at the five over Kenneth Nwuba, who did not play in the game. No word if Nwuba is still dealing with lingering injuries that he suffered in the last few weeks of the regular season, but Etienne acquitted himself well in limited minutes, playing solid defense and even recording a steal. Hard to tell if this was a permanent change or more of a shift due to the matchup (Nwuba struggled against Colorado due to their length and outside shooting) but it was at least intriguing and exactly what UCLA should be doing in these games.
The UCLA defense was actually fairly good in this game, despite Colorado’s final shooting numbers. The Bruins were constantly in the right place; Colorado just hit some ridiculous shots, including deep contested threes on multiple occasions. Colorado would finish the game shooting 51% from the field but a lot of that was the result of a strong first half where the Buffaloes shot 58.3%; they only shot 44.4% in the second half as their ridiculous shooting came back down to earth. UCLA also forced Colorado into 15 turnovers, well in line with how they’ve performed down the stretch and better than they did in their most recent outing. I still have questions about how the defense will look against a team that is better at generating open looks, but for now, this was a good first outing.
Amari Bailey led the Bruins with 26 points. Adem Bona led the team with 10 rebounds, and Tyger Campbell led the team with seven assists. Tristan da Silva led the Buffaloes with 17 points.
Three Takeaways
Player of the Game: Amari Bailey - Bailey has spent a lot of this season showing flashes of being the heavily-hyped player he was coming out of Sierra Canyon but rarely putting things together for an extended period of time, so maybe it should be unsurprising that Bailey took his game to the next level with the lights shining brighter. Still, putting up a career-high in points (26) at the exact moment the team needed it feels like a great boost for a program desperate for good news heading into postseason play.
Seniors Need to Adjust - The loss of Jaylen Clark means that opponents are going to attack the Bruins in a different way, and it feels like that affected the seniors to an abnormal degree. It’s hard to look at their performance against Colorado and call it good, but perhaps it’s just an aberration. Still, UCLA cannot afford for Jaime Jaquez, Tyger Campbell, and David Singleton to collectively play that poorly from here on out.
Winning Time Stays Winning - UCLA would take the lead for good at the 5:04 mark of the second half when Jaquez nailed a three. From that moment on, the Bruins would outscore Colorado 17-8 to turn a close game into a relatively stress-free ending. Not bad, all things considered.
The Bruins now await the winner of Oregon and Washington State in the semifinal matchup tomorrow. Oregon is currently winning as of the publication of this article, and the Ducks are suddenly trying to play themselves onto the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament, so the Bruins will need to be ready. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 PM PT.
Go Bruins!
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It's going to take a few games for UCLA to figure out how to play without the Man of Steal. I was actually (very) pleased with this outing. The defense dropped a bit (Expected), offense increased to compensate. The seniors had "off" days, but not terrible. When we've seen multiple games with UCLA's elite defense keeping the game close and then Jaquez doing those Jaquez moves to get buckets - this one was different. Not worse, not better. Just different. Bailey and Bona were awesome and if both are going to play at this level from here on out, the Bruins will be a tough team to beat.
It's unlikely that all 5 starters have outstanding games on the same day -- the upside is that the Bruins can win in different ways.
UCLA is not the same defense without Clark, but they were still elite. I hope Jaylen recovers fully from his Achilles injury. That kid is one of the big reasons that UCLA is where it is right now. If this is truly his last year as a Bruin, I feel so badly for him that he doesn't get to play in the post-season.
If any team can navigate the loss of a key starter, it's this team.
Go Bruins!
As always a I appreciate your game summary. Spot on.