Students camped out overnight. Sleeping on the ground, skipping class, standing in the hot Los Angeles sun.
Just to spend a few hours inside Pauley Pavilion.
All for one reason: UCLA men’s basketball vs. USC.
“I’m havin’ a blast,” said senior point guard Donovan Dent. “The students are here an hour before the game, giving us energy. Those are the types of games you want to play in college.”
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, Pauley Pavilion was shaking all night as the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team (19-9, 11-6 Big Ten) rolled past crosstown rival USC (18-10, 7-10 Big Ten) 81-62. The Bruins swept the season series last year and have now won seven of their last nine matchups against the Trojans.
Both teams came out of the locker room battling in classic crosstown rivalry fashion. UCLA’s senior forward Tyler Bilodeau was stuffed at the rim on the Bruins’ opening possession, and sophomore guard Trent Perry met the same fate on the next trip down.
Following this, USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara punished the Bruins by drilling a catch-and-shoot triple, putting the Trojans on the board first. The slim-built 6’ 7” guard has been having a brilliant season, averaging a team-high 18.6 points per game, and he demonstrated his elite scoring tonight against the Bruins.
“Obviously, Baker-Mazara is a potent offensive player that can turn your lights off,” said UCLA head coach Mick Cronin.
Nonetheless, Dent immediately responded to Baker-Mazara’s triple, splashing one of his own from downtown to open up the scoring for the Bruins.
The rest of the half was a head-to-head battle between Dent and Baker-Mazara.
Baker-Mazara nailed a step-back, hand-in-the-face three, then followed it up by pulling up and burying another from deep on the very next possession. Dent then proved he can go band-for-band, answering with a no-hesitation catch-and-shoot three.
Two minutes later, Baker-Mazara chucked it up and knocked down another triple, while Dent fired back on the other end, sinking an off-the-dribble three from the top of the arc.
Both sides continued to exchange lead changes until there was 7:30 remaining in the half, when Bilodeau converted an and-one jumper that gave the Bruins a three-point lead, which they held onto for the remainder of the match.
A few possessions later, Dent drained another from downtown and continued to pour in buckets throughout the rest of the half. He punctuated his first-half performance with a step-back middy at the buzzer, sending the Bruins into the break with a 38-29 lead.
“He’s just doing his job,” said Perry, when asked about Dent. “Today was his night, and I just had to lock down on the defensive end and let him go to work.”
Dent and Baker-Mazara ended the half with 19 and 14 points, respectively, each finishing with four three-pointers.
However, only a few minutes into the second-half, Baker-Mazara appeared to injure his right ankle after finishing a put-back layup, forcing him to the bench.
UCLA took advantage of this opportunity, going on a 6-0 run that was capped off by a transition side-step layup from senior guard Skyy Clark. This pushed the Bruins ahead by 11, their largest lead thus far.
Despite that, the Trojans did not give in. With 13:25 left on the clock, Baker-Mazara checked back in and instantly made an impact. He canned another triple and then followed it up with a fastbreak and-one layup, keeping USC afloat.
Even so, it was not enough to retake the lead as Bilodeau began to catch fire. The 17.9 point-per-game scorer connected on back-to-back short range jumpers and tacked on four more points shortly after, extending the Bruins’ lead to 13.
UCLA continued to widen the margin, and with under two minutes left, Dent stopped on a dime and buried a one-handed floater, sealing the game and sending Pauley Pavilion into a frenzy.
“It’s just a great atmosphere,” added Dent. “When you have that type of energy and you come out and hit some shots early, it just feeds into everything. You see the rim at a different size at that point. Everything was going good for me.”
Dent finished with 30 points, eight assists and zero turnovers.
“Proud of the guys, they got the job done,” said Cronin. “Crowd was awesome.”
The Bruins now have three games remaining in the regular season, beginning with a one-game road trip to Minneapolis to face Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 28. They will then return to Pauley Pavilion to take on Nebraska before heading across town for a rematch against USC at the Galen Center.
