Mick Cronin gets his comeback as UCLA fends off upset-minded Washington State
His team playing its best basketball of the season, UCLA coach Mick Cronin voiced one concern as the Bruins headed into the heart of their Pac-12 schedule.
Could they post a comeback victory, something they had not needed to do while rolling off one win after another over the previous five weeks?
“At some point,” Cronin said earlier in the week, “we’re going to have to come back.”
That moment came Friday night.
Struggling to deal with the physical interior presence of Washington State’s Mouhamed Gueye and the hot shooting of D.J. Rodman, the No. 11 Bruins fell into a 12-point hole at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash.
Kiki Rice finishes with 21 points and Charisma Osborne scores 17 before leaving the game with an injury in UCLA’s 82-74 win over Oregon.
Even after pulling into a tie early in the second half, UCLA fell into another funk and trailed by nine points with 7 minutes, 23 seconds left.
Then the Bruins turned to their better half.
Relying heavily on its defense, UCLA pulled out an unlikely 67-66 victory by holding the Cougars without a field goal over the last 7:23 to stretch its winning streak to nine games.
Bruins point guard Tyger Campbell completed the comeback when his steal led to a basket by Adem Bona on a goaltending call that went against Gueye, giving UCLA (12-2 overall, 3-0 Pac-12) a one-point lead with 19 seconds left.
The Cougars got two chances to pull the upset but came up empty. Jaime Jaquez Jr. knocked the ball away from Gueye underneath the basket and Rodman’s three-pointer from the corner was off the mark, allowing Campbell to grab the loose ball as time expired.
“Games like this are really great learning experiences,” Cronin said on the postgame radio show. “Look, our defense got better as the game went on.”
Washington State (5-9, 0-3) missed its last nine shots and 11 of its last 12, failing in its bid to post a third consecutive home victory over the Bruins.
After missing all five of his shots in a foul-plagued first half, Jaquez finished with 20 points largely on the strength of making all 10 free throws. Campbell added 16 points and David Singleton added 14 while starting in place of Amari Bailey, who missed the game with discomfort in his left foot.
The Bruins won despite shooting 36.2% because they had 10 steals while forcing 14 turnovers. They also had considerably more success in the second half countering the 6-foot-11 Gueye, who logged a double-double by halftime on his way to 18 points and 18 rebounds.
UCLA cycled through three big men in the first half while trying to counter Gueye, to no avail. Gueye rose for a three-pointer. He drove the baseline for a dunk. He soared for a putback.
Rodman added 19 points and Jabe Mullins had 11 off the bench for the Cougars, who made only 31% of their shots in the second half.
UCLA closed the game on a 14-4 run in which Washington State scored only on free throws. Jaquez notched eight of those points, including a jumper, a layup and two free throws with 50 seconds left to pull the Bruins within a point before Campbell made his big steal.
UCLA men’s basketball wins its eighth straight game, overcoming a slow start to pull away for an 81-54 win over UC Davis at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins’ last game before Pac-12 play resumes.
Answering their coach’s question in emphatic fashion, the Bruins showed they could come back. Improbably so.
“We didn’t give up,” Cronin said, “so you’ve got to give the guys credit.”
Bolch reported from El Paso, Texas.
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