UCLA Steals Road Game over Washington State, Wins 67-66.

The Bruins played a terrible game, and somehow came away with a win.

Jaylen Clark was one of many Bruins to struggle from the field Friday night. (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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Maybe it’s appropriate that this game came down to one last defensive possession.

Much like with the Sun Bowl game earlier in the day, the UCLA Bruins scored late in the game to take a one-point lead. One defensive possession separated them from a victory that they absolutely did not deserve. Unlike this afternoon, however, the UCLA men’s basketball team can actually play defense and was able to shut down Washington State’s last desperate attempt at the basket to come away with a 67-66 victory and remain undefeated in Pac-12 play.

In a lot of respects, this was a game to forget for the Bruins. The team did not shoot well at all, finishing the game with an abysmal 36.2% from the field. A lot of that damage was done in the first half, where the Bruins shot an unthinkable 26.7%, but all throughout the game UCLA could not get big shots to fall. UCLA’s big three was awful from the field in this game, with Tyger Campbell going 5-15, Jaime Jaquez doing slightly better with 5-14 shooting, and Jaylen Clark going a miserable 3-12. It felt like the Cougars’ length was a major problem for the Bruins, as they weren’t able to get the easy baskets they normally get inside; UCLA finished with only 20 points in the paint while the Cougs had four blocks on the night. The offensive flow also felt off throughout the game, with the Bruins too often defaulting to an isolation play by Tyger Campbell instead of moving the ball and generating open looks (the Bruins finished with only five assists in the game). The one saving grace for the Bruins offensively was their foul shooting, as they went an excellent 21-22 from the free-throw line.

Defensively, Washington State is a team that can abuse a UCLA defense that is not playing with energy. In the aftermath of the Maryland victory, I made an off-handed comment that a team that can hit outside shots with any sort of regularity is one that can cause the Bruins problems, and that showed up here. The Cougs were not great in that respect, but their 36.4% shooting from distance is respectable, and they were constantly able to generate open looks thanks to the defensive indifference of Campbell and Jaquez. Seriously, the Bruins won this game despite their starters sleepwalking through the entire affair.

The poor play of Jaquez and Campbell shone a huge light on a problem of this game, which is that Mick Cronin refused to utilize his bench in this game. Amari Bailey was unavailable for this game due to a foot injury, but we saw Dylan Andrews play all of one minute in this game when he really could have given UCLA a better defensive effort than what Campbell was providing. Will McClendon saw 19 minutes but a lot of that was to replace David Singleton, who got in foul trouble and was targeted relentlessly on the defensive end. Campbell and Jaquez played 37 and 36 minutes respectively; Clark played 35 but at least he was a positive on the defensive end to make up for his poor offense. UCLA really could have used a lot more of Andrews (or even Abramo Canka) just for the energy, because the starting unit, especially the senior leaders, just did not have any.

I’m less concerned about the interior rotation because Adem Bona played a pretty good game. Crucially, he played a relatively clean game, finishing with only three fouls (the third came in the final minute) which allowed him to play 29 minutes. This was huge because Kenneth Nwuba and Mac Etienne struggled any time they saw the court. Nwuba kept getting caught in bad defensive positions, and Etienne got stuffed twice when he came on the court. This was a game where Bona showed why he is far and away the best interior option for the Bruins, and while the offense is still a struggle at times, this was an excellent game from him defensively trying to cover for all of the other miscues on the perimeter.

At the end of the day, UCLA played terribly and still came away with a win. That’s not something that should be dismissed out of hand; after all, this is the kind of game past UCLA teams lost with regularity. In fact, this was Cronin’s first win in Pullman while at UCLA! This UCLA team is definitely tough and more battle-tested than they’re given credit, and it’s not a bad thing to get a win when you’re not playing anywhere close to your best.

Still, let’s never do that again, ok?

Jaime Jaquez led the Bruins with 20 points and eight rebounds. Tyger Campbell and Jaylen Clark tied for the team lead with two assists apiece. DJ Rodman led the Cougars with 19 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Kiki Rice - If I wanted to focus on this game, I’d probably give this spot to Adem Bona, but honestly no one played good enough to earn it. Luckily, they weren’t the only UCLA basketball team playing tonight, as prior to the men’s game, the women went on the road and handled business against a ranked Oregon team by the final of 82-74. Kiki Rice is getting the nod here for a career-high 21 points, and she needed every one of them as Charisma Osbourne would leave in the second half with an injury. Hopefully Osbourne gets healthy soon, but even then this UCLA team is deep and looks like a real threat to make some noise both this year and in the future.

2. Effort the Biggest Culprit to Defensive Issues - If the Bruins gave anywhere close to the defensive effort we saw against Maryland and Kentucky in this game, they probably win more comfortably, but that’s not the world we live in. The primary culprits were the two senior leaders in Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez, and the rest of the team struggled to cover up for their repeated mistakes. If this was a schematic issue, then I’d be worried, but an effort issue is something that feels more fixable quicker.

3. Trouble With the Length - UCLA struggled offensively in this game as well, and the biggest issue seemed to be Wazzu’s length. The Bruins never looked comfortable when they went inside, either trying to force a shot over the top or pulling out for a contested jumper. Again, this seems rather fixable if the Bruins would simply stop trying to force things, but this will be something to monitor later when the Bruins face Arizona.

We’re now in conference play, so the Bruins will have a quick turnaround in which to fix things before playing Washington on Sunday. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 PM PT.

Go Bruins!

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