| Men’s Basketball |
|---|
| UCF — 71 |
| UCLA — 75 |
It is officially that time of year.
March. Madness.
And No. 7 seed UCLA men’s basketball (24-11, 13-7 Big Ten) has survived the round of 64, taking down No. 10 seed UCF (21-12, 9-9 Big 12) 75-71 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
“Crazy stuff happens in March,” said head coach Mick Cronin.
Friday night’s chaos took many forms: senior guard Skyy Clark lost a front tooth, UCF’s 7-foot-2 center John Bol scored an own basket and the Knights nearly erased a nine-point deficit in the final 35 seconds.
Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau, who averages 17.6 points per game, was expected to play in Friday night’s matchup, but was ruled out moments before tip-off.
Bilodeau has now missed the past three games from a knee injury he sustained on March 13 against Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
“He had a good practice yesterday,” said Cronin. “Woke up stiff today. I didn’t like the way he was moving in shoot around this morning. He wanted to play and I said no.”
Nonetheless, junior forward Eric Dailey Jr. and junior center Xavier Booker stepped up amidst Bilodeau’s absence, racking up a combined 35 points and six blocks.
The Bruins started off slow, missing their first seven shots of the game, including three from Dailey Jr.
When asked what was going through his mind after those misses, Dailey Jr. confidently stated “I wasn’t worried, imma make the next one for sure. I was thinking like alright, let’s keep shooting.”
In the following minutes, Dailey Jr. slammed home a put-back dunk, went coast-to-coast for a transition lay up, and buried two tough midrange jumpers.
The subsequent play, Clark stepped back and hit nothing but net from deep, granting the Bruins a 13-10 lead, which they maintained until the final buzzer.
With two minutes left in the half, senior guard Donovan Dent bricked a long triple, and UCF’s Bol accidentally tipped it back in, scoring an own basket.
The fortuitous put-back stretched UCLA’s lead to 14, its largest of the night.
However, UCF came right back, knocking down two consecutive three-pointers to trim the lead down to 35-27 before heading into the break.
The Knights remained right on the Bruins’ tail in the second half.
Thanks to two catch-and-shoot corner triples from Jordan Burks, UCF went on an 11-0 run early in the half.
UCLA then matched this with a 12-1 run of its own that included a couple layups from sophomore guard Trent Perry, a no-hesitation three from Booker and two heavily contested floaters from Dent.
Additionally, with just under three minutes remaining, Clark was elbowed in the face and had his front tooth chipped off while fighting for a loose ball. He was seen grinning at the cameras with blood dripping out of his mouth.
“I saw him smilin’, it was just bleeding” said Dailey. “He got aura.”
Nonetheless, in the final two minutes, things began to get shaky for the Bruins.
“Mathematically, under two minutes, if you’re up eight or more, you can’t lose if you don’t give up threes or turn it over,” said Cronin. “It’s literally a one percent chance you could lose. And we failed that miserably.”
Struggles to break the Knights’ full-court press, a few missed free throws and two triples from Burks cut UCLA’s lead to just three with ten seconds left.
UCF was forced to foul Perry, and he stepped up when it mattered most, knocking down both from the line to close it out for the Bruins.
UCLA will now advance to the round of 32, where they will face No. 2 seed and 2024 NCAA Champions UConn on Sunday, March 22 at 5 p.m. PST.
The Huskies bested No. 15 seed Furman 82-71, powered by 31 points and 27 rebounds from center Tarris Reed Jr.
The Bruins will need to muster all their strength if they hope to punch their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.
