UCLA Bruins Maul WSU Cougs, 76-56
The Bruins scored the first nine points and never looked back.
The outcome for tonight’s UCLA basketball game against the Washington State Cougars was in doubt for all of about 45 seconds. That’s only because that’s how long it took for the Bruins to hit their first basket on a layup by Myles Johnson. Jaylen Clark made it 4-0 on UCLA’s next possession. Johnny Juzang put the Bruins up by seven with a three-pointer with 18:06 to go in the half. Clark then made it a 9-0 run to start the game after a Cougar turnover.
The Bruins’ lead would not be less than seven points for the remainder of the first half and, if you turned the game off in favor of something else, you didn’t miss much. UCLA spent the next eleven minutes extending their lead to 14 points and with 6:33 to go in the half, the Bruins led, 28-14.
Late in the first half, the Cougars managed to cut the lead down to just eight points with a pair of free throws from Andrej Jakimovski, but Jake Kyman put the Bruins up by ten at the break, 39-29.
Washington State did their best to make it a competitive game during the first three and a half minutes of the second half when they went on a 8-2 run right after the break. That cut the Bruins’ lead to just four points, 41-37, but a 14-1 run by UCLA pushed it up to a 18-point difference, 56-38.
Meanwhile, the much-heralded UCLA defense continued to shut down the Cougars and the Bruin offense kept the run going. The 14-1 run soon was a 27-6 run and the Bruins were now up by 25, 68-43, with 7:08 to go in the game.
In the final seven minutes, the Bruins never led by less than 20 points and they still led by 23 with 3:35 left.
The Cougs were finally able to chip away a little at the UCLA lead in the final 1:39 when they managed to make three free throws to score the final three points of the game, making the final of this one: UCLA 76, Washington State 56.
With Tyger Campbell not playing due to a violation of team rules, Johnny Juzang scored 19 points to lead all scorers while Jaylen Clark added 18. Clark was also in double figures in rebounds with 11. Tonight’s game was his first career double-double.
The Bruins will host Washington, who lost to Southern Cal tonight 79-69, on Saturday night at 7 pm on Fox Sports 1.
Go Bruins!!!
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The offense didn't stagnate last night. Please do more of this, Bruins!
The defense in this game and intensity was fun to watch. They all played like it mattered