Amari Bailey, Defense Help UCLA Men's Basketball Best Oregon State

The Bruins' star freshman scored a career-high 24 points, while their defense held an opponent under 50 points for the third team since Jan. 1.

Any rust that Amari Bailey was dealing with before Thursday night has officially been shaken off.

No. 7 UCLA men's basketball (20-4, 11-2 Pac-12) took care of business against Oregon State (9-16, 3-11), running away with a 62-47 victory at Gill Coliseum. The Bruins' defense helped them build a big halftime lead and eventually surge to the win, but they got a career night out of their star freshman on the other end on top of that.

Bailey – who recently missed seven games with a foot injury – scored a career-high 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting in his fourth game back in the rotation. 18 of those points came in the second half, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of UCLA's production in the final 20 minutes.

Outside of Bailey and guard Jaylen Clark – who scored 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting – the Bruins' offense couldn't get much going, shooting 34.8% from the field. As was expected, though, they didn't need to score a ton of points to leave with a win.

UCLA went up to Corvallis ranked No. 3 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency. Oregon State, on the other hand, was ranked No. 267 in offensive efficiency. In points per game, the Bruins' defense entered Thursday in the 98th percentile, while the Beavers' offense was in the 4th percentile.

The outcome matched the statistical expectations almost immediately.

Thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by forward Michael Rataj and guard Jordan Pope, the Bruins trailed 8-3 five minutes into the contest. However, after starting the night 4-for-8 from the field, the Beavers shot just 3-for-12 for the remainder of the half.

UCLA ran the full court press nearly every chance it got, and their defenders came up and guarded their men tight in the half court. That helped lead to 11 turnovers by Oregon State in the first half, as well as a bunch of missed contested shots at the end of the shot clock.

The Bruins weren't exactly lights out on offense themselves, but Clark and guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. got things going around the basket when their teammates couldn't get freed up from the Beavers' zone. Nine of UCLA's 12 first-half field goals were assisted, and all but two of their points came in the paint, at the line or from beyond the arc.

Two separate 9-0 runs helped the Bruins take complete control, and they never looked back.

Behind their lockdown defense and 3-pointers by Clark, Jaquez, point guard Tyger Campbell and guard David Singleton, UCLA led 31-18 headed into the locker room. The 18 points the Bruins allowed in the first half was the fewest they had allowed in any half all season.

The score stayed locked there until Bailey and center Adem Bona got some free throws to fall and built UCLA's lead out to 16. Two steals by Clark led to easy buckets for Bailey and himself, which bumped that advantage up to 18.

It took nearly six minutes before Oregon State got a shot to fall in the second half – ending a 1-for-10 stretch from the field – but that didn't do much to fix their offensive woes. There were fewer than 10 minutes left on the clock before they hit their second shot of the period. 

Through over 30 minutes and 45 possessions, the Beavers had put just 24 points up on the board.

Bailey, meanwhile, scored 10 of UCLA's first 13 points to open the second half. Clark added another steal and score to put the Bruins up by 22, and the two guards accounted for all six of their team's second-half field goals until Singleton drilled a fast-break corner 3-pointer with 7:55 remaining.

Right after Oregon State trimmed the deficit under 20 points, Bailey went on an 8-0 run all by himself to completely ice it. For all the work he was doing around the rim, Bailey was the only Bruin who scored any midrange points.

A 7-0 Oregon State run inside the final minute was the only thing that kept UCLA from posting its best defensive performance on the Mick Cronin era.

The star senior duo of Jaquez and Campbell combined for just 10 points on 4-for-15 shooting, but the former added 12 rebounds and the latter finished with five assists. The pair combined for one turnover and two steals, and they led the team with plus/minuses of plus-27 and plus-23, respectively.

With the win, the Bruins notched their best 13-game start to Pac-12 play since 2008.

UCLA will close out its road trip with a game against Oregon on Saturday. That game will tip off from Eugene at 7 p.m., and it will be televised on ESPN.

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