UCLA Rides Defense to Outright Pac-12 Title in 60-56 Win Over Colorado

The Buffaloes made the Bruins fight for every inch of this title.

Tyger Campbell came up clutch for the Bruins in this game. (Photo credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins.com)

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UCLA entered Sunday’s matchup with Colorado as the uncrowned champion. Thanks to Arizona’s last-second loss to rival Arizona State on Saturday, UCLA entered this game with a 2.5-game lead over the Wildcats for the regular season championship and needed to simply win one of their final three games to clinch the title. Considering that Colorado has not been exceptionally good this year, you can imagine that maybe the Bruins were riding high on their own supply and perhaps looking past the Buffaloes.

That was almost their downfall. Colorado came into this game with an excellent gameplan and brought a level of intensity that UCLA struggled to match for much of the early game, and even when UCLA finally got its legs under it the Buffaloes refused to go away quietly, even grabbing a one-point lead with 3:10 remaining in this game. But then the Bruins entered into Winning Time, preventing Colorado from making a field goal over the final four minutes of the game, rattling off a 10-4 advantage in those minutes to pull away for a 60-56 victory and an always-elusive sweep of the Rocky Mountain Road Trip.

This was definitely a game where the Bruins felt disinterested in playing their usually-clean brand of basketball. Four Bruins ended the game with at least four fouls, with Jaylen Clark fouling out with less than 30 seconds remaining. UCLA finished with a respectable nine turnovers, but six of those came in a sloppy first half where the Bruins made mistake after mistake. Even in the second half, when UCLA had opportunity after opportunity to pull away and turn this into a comfortable victory, the Bruins failed to capitalize or complete the play. And we should again credit Colorado for refusing to go away; it would have been incredibly easy for them to roll over at multiple points, such as when the Bruins opened the second half on a 7-0 run to take the lead or when Tristan da Silva went down with an injury, and yet they kept fighting and making things difficult.

But this UCLA team is not the UCLA team of the past, and where previous Bruin teams needed to win games with an excellent offense, it was again the Bruin defense that carried the day. UCLA held Colorado to 33.3% shooting on the game, including a ridiculous 28.0% in the second half. The Bruins again struggled to rebound for the second-straight game, which is especially concerning considering Colorado is not a good rebounding team in general, but even that was cleaned up in the second half. And it was a defensive play that sealed the game, as David Singleton played perfect defense on a K.J. Simpson drive and created the opportunity for Adem Bona to send his floater attempt upcourt for an Amari Bailey dunk.

The story on this UCLA team has been the same all year: if they defend to their standard, then it does not necessarily matter how they play on offense because the defense will keep them in any game. I think there is a question of whether the Bruins have played a complete defensive game this year, but even 30 minutes of excellent defense has usually been enough. Next week will offer a different opportunity for this team to show they can be locked in defensively for an entire game.

Jaime Jaquez continued his push for conference player of the year with a solid 17 points on 7-14 shooting. More importantly, when the Bruins needed stops late in the game, Jaquez remained on the floor, because unlike Arizona’s Azuelis Tubelis Jaquez can actually play defense and isn’t a huge liability for half of the game. Tyger Campbell also came up huge in the second half, scoring 13 of his 14 points in the half including hitting UCLA’s lone three-point shot. The bench was mostly a non-factor, only scoring two points combined, but we did see more Mac Etienne than Kenneth Nwuba, perhaps a sign that Etienne is starting to figure some things out.

With the win, UCLA clinched the outright Pac-12 regular season title, its first since Ben Howland’s last season in charge of the program in 2012-2013. I don’t think its a coincidence that the first UCLA team to really remind us of those Final Four squads was the one to break the streak. That said, the job is not even close to done - the Bruins are still absolutely in play for a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and could do enough to grab one with a strong final few weeks.

Jaime Jaquez led the Bruins with 17 points. Adem Bona led the team with seven rebounds, and Tyger Campbell led with three assists. K.J. Simpson led the Buffaloes with 14 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Tyger Campbell - I didn’t think anyone on UCLA played a particularly great game, but I figure Campbell earned PotG honors for how he turned things around at halftime. Campbell had one single point in the first half, going 0-5 from the field, and paired it with some miserable defense. Things changed in the second half, with Campbell scoring 13 points on 5-7 shooting and hitting big shot after big shot down the stretch for the Bruins. Campbell has come alive on this road trip, breaking out of his slump at the exact right time.

2. Area of Concern: Rebounding, Again - Colorado is not a good rebounding team and has the kind of size that should have allowed UCLA to do what it wanted to on the glass. Instead, Colorado was able to grab rebound after rebound against the Bruins, simply using better positioning more often than not in the process. UCLA could use some work on free throws as well after this one, but I would not be surprised if rebounding gets special attention with the Arizona schools coming to town this week.

3. I Continue to Have Rotation Questions - We actually saw much more of Mac Etienne than Kenneth Nwuba in this one, which was an exciting development and could prove huge down the stretch, but now I am starting to wonder why Dylan Andrews continues to get so few minutes in favor of Will McClendon. Perhaps Cronin has more faith in McClendon given that he has been in the program one more year than Andrews, but just like against Utah on Thursday the game shifted when Andrews was put in the game, and even if his offense isn’t falling, what Andrews bring on defense with his athleticism and length more than makes up for any issues he may or may not have. I am of the opinion Andrews can be an X-factor for this team, and would love to see him take the bulk of the secondary guard minutes that McClendon continues to get this year.

The Bruins will return home this week to close out the regular season. First up will be a matchup with Arizona State on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 PM PT.

Go Bruins!

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