UCLA Rings in New Year with Dominant Victory Over Washington, 74-49
The Bruins got back to basics against a bad Huskies squad.
If Friday’s game was a close scare, today’s game was the get-right game that the Bruins needed.
UCLA came into this game knowing they were a better team than Washington and established that from the get-go, racing out to an early lead and never letting up en route to a 74-49 victory to secure the road sweep of the Washington schools.
Washington did provide an interesting problem for UCLA to solve, as they’re one of the few teams in the country that employ a zone defense, which actually does a good job of masking a lot of the problems with their roster. They have solid length on the interior and were flying around to cover the perimeter. Playing against a zone defense is different than against man; it’s designed to limit dribble penetration and make you hit shots from the outside. There is a specific way you play offense to beat a zone defense, which makes it all the more difficult when you don’t see it often.
For a decent part of this game, UCLA did in fact struggle against the zone. Sure, they hit shots here and there, but this wasn’t the easy offense we’ve seen for much of the season from the Bruins. The first half in particular was a struggle for many Bruins. Jaylen Clark went 0-5 from the field, Jaime Jaquez was 3-8, and the Bruins in general shot 41.7% from the field, highlighted by a lot of uncharacteristic misses and air-balls. Then the second half started. UCLA regrouped and shot 50% from the field in the second half, doing a much better job attacking the interior and working patiently to find the holes in the defense. Adem Bona in particular had a monster game, showing patience on offense that he hadn’t shown earlier in the season en route to a career-high 18 points on 8-10 shooting. Three other Bruins ended up in double-figures, with Jaquez ending with 17 points, Tyger Campbell getting to 15 points, and David Singleton (again starting while Amari Bailey sits with a foot injury) chipping in 14 points. The lone starter to have a bad offensive game was Clark, who would finish with only two points on 1-9 shooting, but he also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds to go with his usual hounding defense, so it’s not all bad.
I’d talk more about the defense in this game but, honestly, it’s hard to take much from it because Washington does not seem to have anything resembling an offensive identity. I’m on the record as thinking Mike Hopkins is a bad basketball coach and watching the Huskies play offense only served to reinforce my viewpoint. The best offense Washington was able to muster was a lob to Braxton Meah, which admittedly did work a lot as the Huskies were able to generate a decent amount of penetration off the dribble and put Bona and Jaquez in bad defensive positions, but any time the Bruins shut that initial penetration down, Washington was stuck aimlessly throwing the ball around before throwing up a shot that, more often than not, had no chance of going in the basket. The Huskies shot a poor 34.5% from the field, including an abysmal 2-25 from three-point range, and I’m not sure how much of that is truly due to UCLA’s defense. Like, holding an opponent to 49 points is no laughing matter, but I’m not sure how much of that was due to Washington themselves.
I don’t have much to say on this game, honestly. UCLA did what they were supposed to do against a bad team (I know Washington State’s record is worse, but I think Kyle Smith is a much-better coach than Hopkins and, if you noticed, that team handily beat Southern Cal today, so they’re much better than their record would indicate). They came out with an early lead, maintained it for most of the game, and then extended it out when they wanted to put the game away. The bench got solid minutes, something I was looking for after the way Friday played out, and the starters played with more focus. Good win, time for Southern Cal.
Adem Bona led the team with 18 points. Jaylen Clark led the team with 11 rebounds, while Tyger Campbell had the team lead with 11 assists. Braxton Meah led the Huskies with 20 points.
Three Takeaways
Player of the Game: Tyger Campbell - I wanted to highlight Campbell because this was as close to the idealized version of Tyger that we’ve gotten this year. Coach Mick Cronin clearly wants Campbell to be more of a scorer, and we saw that with his 15 points on 11 shot attempts (second-most on the team), but he was also an excellent distributor, finishing with 11 assists for a double-double. Campbell was also more engaged on the defensive end, so clearly, the poor game against Washington State lit a fire under him.
But Also Shout Out to Adem Bona - The growth of Bona has been one of the major storylines for this team since the start of the year just due to the shaky returning depth on the interior. Kenneth Nwuba is a great Bruin but not exactly someone you feel comfortable with playing 15+ minutes a game, and Mac Etienne is promising but coming off a major knee injury, so it was going to take a bit for him to get back into the swing of things. Adem Bona came into the program raw but athletically-gifted, and in the past few weeks, we’ve seen him start to put it all together. His defense has become stronger as the year has progressed, and this game showed a patience on offense that was sorely lacking at the start of the season. There are still some things he needs to work on, and I’d love to see him use his athleticism more to finish strong at the rim, but overall I’m pleased with his growth.
Can We Talk About Logan Cremonisi’s Hair for a Second? - So he definitely lost a bet, right? And that’s why his hair is like this? I know the phrase “new year, new me” but this seems a bridge too far.
The Bruins come home for a big rivalry matchup with Southern Cal on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 PM PT.
Go Bruins!
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Great all-around effort! Learning to bust zone defenses is essential because teams in the ncaa tourney will rotate between man and zone a lot and knowing how to respond is key.
Love the double-double by Tyger, and especially the improvement of Bona. He’s dunking more and instead of rushing shots, he’s employed hesitation fakes which contributed to his 8-10 performance. He didn’t grab many rebounds but that’s mostly because UW shot so many il-advised 3s and Clark and Jaime were great on the boards.
I definitely think when keyed in and fully healthy, this could be cronins most well-rounded team. Wish we can see this effort level for all games!
Was nice to see a well balanced game after the previous outing. When guys are making their open looks it helps for sure. Tyger getting a break was well needed and good to get other rotation players in. Is there an outlook on baileys return?