Bruins Prep For Tough Battle With North Carolina on Saturday

The UCLA Bruins will take their nine-game win streak to Madison Square Garden this Saturday afternoon as they face off against the struggling North Carolina Tar Heels. It will be another big test to see what this Bruins team is made of.

Dec 14, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Eric Dailey Jr. (3) against the Arizona Wildcats at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The No. 18 UCLA Bruins (10-1) just wrapped up another dominant performance, scoring their season-high 111 points in a home win over Prairie View A&M. They will not quickly shift their focus to a historically great program in the North Carolina Tar Heels (6-5) this Saturday afternoon.

The Bruins will hop on a flight and travel cross-country to match up with the Tar Heels at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The Bruins have played a few highly skilled teams this season and the Tar Heels will be no different.

The Tar Heels have gotten off to a shaky start this year, losing four of their last six games. Their schedule has featured four teams ranking inside the top 10 -- they lost each one of those games. Their best win of the year is arguably Dayton or Georgia Tech.

If the Bruins play like they did on Tuesday night and shoot nearly 60% from the field, not many teams in the country could stop them. The odds of another triple-digit scoring performance is not extremely high and this game will likely be churned out by both sides for all 40 minutes.

Tar Heels senior guard R.J. Davis is the team's leading scorer with 18.6 points per game on 37.1% from the field. Junior guard Seth Trimble is just as dangerous, averaging 15 points per game and leads the team in rebounds per game (4.9) and steals per game (1.7).

There has been a lingering notion that collegiate players find early struggles at Madison Square Garden due to the depth perception which could play a major factor. If the Bruins find themselves struggling to score, they will rely on their stellar defense to get the job done.

The two teams are entering the contest with different mentalities with the same goal in mind. The Bruins are on their hottest winning streak since 2022, and the Tar Heels recently fell to No. 7 Florida and are looking to earn a season-defining win in a bounce-back spot.

If the Bruins notch another impressive win against a national opponent, they will continue to climb the rankings and enter the conversation as one of the teams that will have a strong chance to make a deep run in the month of March. This game will be evenly matched all the way through.

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