LOS ANGELES - UCLA (11-5, 3-2) came into Friday's matchup against the (7-9, 0-5) Maryland Terrapins looking to get back on track.
The Bruins had suffered two brutal losses in a row and were still looking for their win of the New Year while their glaring flaws continued to reveal themselves, chiefly among those flaws has been the defense and the lack of rebounding from the Bruins, and while one of those issues was seemingly resolved the other one decidedly was not.
The Bruins held the Terrapins to just 30% shooting from the field and 18% from the three point line as they turned up their defensive intensity and made things difficult for Maryland all night.
"Defense is attitude and effort. It's nothing else," junior guard Eric Dailey Jr. said. "There's obviously tactics to defense but at the end of the day you just don't let your man score and help your teammate out."
As dominant as their defense was, the rebounding, or lack thereof, from the Bruins left something to be desired. The Terrapins out-rebounded the Bruins 48-29, with a massive 20-5 difference between the two teams when it came to offensive boards.
Maryland those extra opportunities into 24 second chance points, the only factor that truly kept them in the game considering how stifling the Bruins were on the defensive end.
"Our first-shot defense was unbelievably good. They'd [Maryland] have shot 20% if we could get a rebound," UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said.
UCLA got off to a slow start, but quickly remedied that situation with 16 unanswered points as part of a 22-5 run to close the first half leading 38-21.
However, the lead they'd built went away as quickly as it appeared. Maryland slowly but surely fought back and climbed up the scoreboard, aided by the massive difference in rebounding by the two teams, and before long it there was just a single-digit difference in the score for the first time since over six minutes left in the first half.
The assurance and security of their double-digit run was log gone and now the Bruins were just looking to survive instead of take over.
John Panganiban-The Sporting Tribune
UCLA forward Eric Dailey Jr. (3) dunking the ball during a Big 10 basketball game against Maryland, Saturday , January 10th, 2025 in Los Angeles, California
They did manage to survive with a 67-55 win, largely due to the continued excellence of their defense and the fact that even though Maryland attempted 15 more shots than UCLA, the Terrapins made two less as just about every shot was heavily contested.
"Even though we got out-rebounded throughout the entire game, at the end of the day we locked in and we held the team to 55 points," sophomore guard Trent Perry said. "It's amazing."