UCLA Solidifies Pac-12 Lead with Dominant Victory over Utah, 68-49

The Utes were without their best player but the Bruins dominated all phases of the game.

Adem Bona put on a show for the Bruins. (Photo credit: Ross Turteltaub/uclabruins.com)

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Sometimes I have something witty to say at the start here, like "that happened” or “man what a difference a week makes” or something like that. I mean, I guess I could use that second one again, but even that somewhat undersells what happened.

This is a strange game to recap because of the difference between expectations and reality. For example:

Expectations: The matchup between UCLA and Utah will be a hard-fought affair between two of the top teams in the conference.

Reality: Utah did not have their best player and honestly with the way the Bruins played I doubt it would have mattered.

Let’s address the elephant hanging over this game at the top. About 10 minutes before tip-off, Utah announced that their star player Branden Carlson would be out due to an illness. Carlson had been playing at a Pac-12 POY-level to start the year, and the Utes would have a tough road to climb if they wanted to win this game. At the beginning, it looked like Utah wasn’t going to simply roll-over for the more-talented Bruins, and then all of a sudden it broke. UCLA established itself as the clearly-better team and in such a fashion that I don’t think it would have mattered if Carlson was actually healthy to play or not. The Bruins locked Utah down defensively, holding the Utes to a meager 36.7% from the field, and held a tremendous 40-26 rebounding advantage over their opponent. You go down the list of stats, and things get bleaker and bleaker.

21 UCLA assists to nine for the Utes.

A 21-4 advantage in second-chance points.

A 38-16 advantage in points in the paint.

Eight UCLA blocks compared to none for the Utes.

This was clinical. It was surgical.

It was Mick Cronin basketball.

The Bruins might have beaten Utah 68-49, but the way in which they did so says more than you would think. Once again, the Bruins were without talented freshman Amari Bailey, who is apparently just being held out for precautionary reasons; the coaching staff clearly wants him healthy for the critical Arizona road trip next week, as he’s shown solid movement in practice. It did not matter though because UCLA’s other potential one-and-done freshman put on a show, as Adem Bona dazzled the Pauley Pavilion faithful to the tune of 15 points and eight rebounds. Bona has emerged as a true post presence for the Bruins, putting up advanced defensive stats to rival Jaylen Clark while becoming more confident as a finisher around the rim. Bona hit explosive dunks while also showing a solid touch on the backboard, finishing 7-9 from the field.

Bona’s performance meant that it did not matter that Jaime Jaquez was quietly bad on the offensive end, as the senior finished with eight points on a miserable 3-11 shooting night. That said, we did see more of early-UCLA Jaime, as Jaquez cleaned up on the glass and defensive end, finding a myriad of ways to contribute to the Bruin victory. It also helped that Tyger Campbell and Jaylen Clark each had excellent nights. Campbell seems to have reawoken, scoring a team-high 17 points on 7-14 shooting, including a much-improved 3-6 from distance. Jaylen Clark did all the little things as usual, scoring 11 points on 5-10 shooting while registering three steals. Bona’s emergence is creating another avenue for the Bruins where they don’t need that core trio to be ridiculous each night to secure a win, which is a hugely positive sign going forward.

I’m also going to break with tradition and say that I’m happy Cronin rode his starters more minutes in this one. The Bruins hadn’t played in a week, and the way in which the Southern Cal game ended left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, so Cronin clearly gave his starters an extended run to get that game out of their system. Even with that, we did see the bench get some good minutes, with Will McClendon continuing to build back up with a solid 14-minute outing while Dylan Andrews lit it up in his nine minutes, scoring eight points on 3-5 shooting (2-3 from three) along with four rebounds. His two turnovers show there’s still some room for growth, but he continues to push for increased minutes.

Let’s talk about the defense a bit before getting out of here: it was really dang good. UCLA held the Utes to a measly 0.778 points per possession, allowing the Utes to score on only 34.9% of their possessions while forcing a turnover on 25.4% of their possessions (if you want to compare those to UCLA’s numbers, the Bruins scored 1.115 points per possession, with a scoring percentage of 50.8% and a turnover percentage of 19.7%). That’s ridiculous numbers, and I’m not sure the return of Carlson could paper over a defensive performance like this. Especially when you consider that Carlson’s absence was announced so close to game time, I have to imagine this was just the regular gameplan, and that plan clearly was to disrespect Utah’s ability to do anything offensively. Guys were flying around, getting in passing lanes, and causing havoc. The press that UCLA has turned into a staple of their defense again served its purpose by speeding up the Utes and forcing them into mistakes.

UCLA under Mick Cronin has been an interesting beast. The thought was that he would implement a return to Ben Ball, with a stifling defense and an efficient but slow offense. So far under his tenure, this has only been partially true - the offense has been slow but ruthlessly efficient, while the defense has been…fine. But this year has been a different story. UCLA’s offense is still really good - they sit 15th in the country in adjusted efficiency according to KenPom. But the defense has been the story, with the Bruins now possessing the 4th best defense in adjusted efficiency. KenPom has them as the third-best team in the country at the moment, and I’m not sure we’ve even seen them at their best. Crazy to think about.

Tyger Campbell led the Bruins with 17 points and seven assists. Jaime Jaquez led the team with 12 rebounds. Rollie Worster led the Utes with 12 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Adem Bona - I was actually a bit stuck on who to give this to, so I went and asked my brother and roommate who they thought was the best player in the game. Both of them immediately said Bona, which works for me. Bona really played a tremendous game on both ends of the court, and his level of development is quickly changing the calculus for what UCLA could do in March.

2. 49 is a Magic Number - Just me, but if you hold your opponent to 49 points, you’re probably going to win a lot of basketball games. This is actually the second time in three games that they’ve held an opponent to 49 points, even more impressive considering Washington does have some level of talent and Utah has already beaten Arizona this year.

3. Banking Big Wins - UCLA has an important road trip next week, but if the Bruins remain clean at home and win the games they should on the road, they’ll have a great shot at the conference title. So far, so good, especially as the Bruins watch the rest of the Pac-12 devour itself.

The Bruins will return to the court on Saturday when they take on Colorado. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 PM PT.

Go Bruins!

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