SEATTLE – UCLA (14-6, 5-4) held on to defeat the University of Washington (10-10, 1-8) 65-60 Friday, Jan. 24 courtesy of strong performances from three across the board for the Bruins.
The Bruins didn’t have one true standout scorer Friday night, but several players turned in key performances: Mara and junior guard Skyy Clark tied for the team lead in points with 12, while sophomore guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr. and senior guard Kobe Johnson were close behind with 11 points apiece.
Mara showed out in the first half. Fresh off his huge performance against Wisconsin, Mara had three blocks in the first half alone, and finished the game with five rejections in total.
"If you got to play him [Mara] straight up he's hard to stop," UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said in a postgame interview. "You're seeing it now."
Washington led by as much as seven in the first half, but UCLA went on a 11-0 run to reclaim the lead and go up 26-22 with just under six minutes to play. The Bruins padded their lead afterward with four straight free throws, two from sophomore center Aday Mara and two from freshman guard Trent Perry, to elevate their lead 31-24.
UCLA junior forward Tyler Bilodeau rolled his ankle early in the first half and was relegated to the bench soon afterward. Bilodeau only played three minutes due to the injury, leaving the Bruins without one of their best scorers.
"I didn't like the way he was moving," Cronin said about Bilodeau in a postgame interview. "A kid like him... you could hit him in the head with a bat and he's gonna say 'I want to play...' I'm more worried about his career and the rest of our season."
Washington stayed with UCLA throughout, cutting the lead down to just 36-32 going into halftime. The major difference between the teams was that the Bruins took off on several scoring runs to gain ground throughout the game while the Huskies struggled to do the same, and instead mostly exchanged scoring back and forth when they found their shots again.
UCLA excelled at three in the first half. The Bruins were 5/12 from three in the first half while the Huskies failed to knock down any threes of their own in the first.
The three-ball made the difference for UCLA. Washington outplayed UCLA in the paint especially, and the two teams were nearly identical from the field overall. It was because Washington did so much right that they could afford to do so much wrong shooting from three while staying in contention.
Back-to-back threes in the second half by UCLA sophomore guard Sebastian Mack finally gave the Bruins some room to breathe, putting them up 51-42 with 12 minutes to go in the game.
The Bruins led by as much as 11 in the second half, but the score grew close again soon enough. The Huskies outscored the Bruins 8-1 across two minutes to come within four. It had been a two possession or less game nearly the entire night, save for some flashes of scoring for UCLA.
Washington finally cut the lead down to a one-possession game with less than a minute remaining, 60–57, with UCLA still up and trying to protect their lead and keep the win. Washington burned their final timeout in order to regroup and prepare to steal the win out from under UCLA.
UCLA junior guard Dylan Andrews hit the dagger for UCLA with 17 seconds left in the game. Andrews stepped back at the top of the key and sank the shot to put UCLA up 63-57.
"I just stepped back and, man, thank God I got to see a shot go in," Andrews said.
The Huskies charged down the court looking to get back, but lost the ball in a scramble in the paint to Clark before fouling the UCLA guard.
Clark sank both of his free throws to seal the deal for the Bruins. The Huskies hit a final three at the buzzer but the Bruins were already too far ahead. UCLA claimed the game by a final score of 65-60 for their third straight victory.
The Bruins next face their storied crosstown rivals, the USC Trojans, in an away game Monday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.