UCLA Men's Basketball: Bruins Drop Final Exhibition Game, Fall To 2-1 On Trip
Your UCLA Bruins finished up their international preseason exhibition campaign with their first loss, per a team presser.
On Tuesday at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau in Girona, Catalonia, UCLA fell to Liga ACB pro Spanish club Bàsquet Girona, losing their third and final exhibition matchup during their ongoing Spanish trip. The Bruins had previously vanquished both the Madrid All-Stars and another pro team, Basquet L'Horta Godella.
Because Tuesday's matchup was technically a closed scrimmage for Bàsquet Girona, complete box score stats were not actually released, so we don't know the margin of the defeat. Perhaps it's for the best. Tickets were not released to area fans for the 5,500-seat venue, according to the UCLA recap. Instead, just 30 members of the Bruins' traveling party took in the competition.
Though we don't have complete stats, we do know that UCLA's high scorer on the night was sophomore guard Dylan Andrews. The 6'2" wing out of Gardena scored 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the floor. Two new additions to the Bruins' roster, sharpshooting junior transfer Lazar Stefanovic and freshman guard Sebastian Mack, both chipped in 12 points. Redshirt sophomore guard Will McClendon scored nine. Head coach Mick Cronin started Andrews, Stefanovic, Mack, freshman Ilane Fibleuil and fifth-year center Kenneth Nwuba. Sophomore big man Adem Bona and freshman wing Jan Vide were unavailable.
"It was a great practice for us," Cronin reflected. "Our guys learned how good ACB league players are in Spain. That's why I wanted to play an ACB team. Too many young guys think that pro basketball is easy. They got a taste of pro basketball tonight and it was great for us in a lot of ways – individually, for the guys to learn that and collectively, to play somebody that's much better than you."
