UCLA Basketball Highlights: Bruins Upset By CSUN In Shocker
After a scare against the UC Riverside Highlanders on November 30th (UCLA won, just barely, 66-65), your UCLA Bruins finally played with their mid-major food a bit too long, allowing the older, more experienced CSUN Matadors to secure a crazy upset win tonight.
The Bruins' 29-game home winning streak at Pauley Pavilion, formerly the longest active such run in the land, has come to an abrupt end. UCLA falls to 5-5 on the year, as its best attributes (defense and size) were not enough to compensate for its failings (fastbreak offense, shooting).
Freshman guard Sebastian Mack, the team's top scorer, was shifted to a reserve role by head coach Mick Cronin, in probably my least-favorite decision of the game.
The trouble started almost immediately. UCLA was quickly lagging behind CSUN early in the first half, trailing by as much as 11 points. The Bruins continue to get off to slow scoring starts, and tonight was certainly no exception. But the UCLA's length and defensive acumen helped the club hang in there, and the offense of new additions Mack and Lazar Stefanovic helped the team chip away at the Matadors' lead... for a while.
Redshirt senior UCLA big man Kenneth Nwuba continued his troubling habit of missing point-blank layups, a negative trend he had carried over from the Bruins' recent OSU loss.
CSUN was aggressively driving seemingly at will against UCLA through much of the first half. The Matadors built out a 40-26 advantage at the break, and UCLA headed to the locker room to a smattering of boos from a very disappointed Pauley Pavilion crowd. Sloppy turnovers (including several live-ball turnovers) and struggles with CSUN's fastbreak offense were the two biggest issues that put the Bruins in the hole.
The Matadors built out their lead to as much as 18 points early in the second half, but UCLA's pesky defense helped slow them down in a huge way.
Some careless CSUN fouls and some frenetic Sebastian Mack offense helped the Bruins get within striking distance at last, cutting the lead to just three points, on a 15-2 run, with a shade over 11 minutes remaining.
The Bruins got within a point, but never quite overcame the Matadors.
Midway through the frame, two CSUN frontcourt pieces fouled out in quick succession. 6'8" reserve senior big man Jasman Sangha was the first to get a definitive whistle, and starting 6'10" senior center Dearon Tucker soon followed him off the floor for good.
Mack and Dylan Andrews became UCLA's go-to offense down the stretch, with Mack perennially cutting inside and drawing contact late.
With under a minute remaining, CSUN's Keonte Jones was helped off the floor with an injury.
The Bruins got close again late, but it wasn't enough. CSUN won, 76-72, improving to an 8-3 record on the year. Mack finished with a team-leading 27 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor, and a whopping 13-of-16 shooting from the foul line. Andrews wrapped up with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor.
Five Matadors finished in double digit scoring, led by junior guard Dionte Bostick's 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Bostick was also the third rotation player (and second starter) to foul out on the night, but that didn't stop CSUN from winning anyway.
