UCLA Men's Basketball Blows Out Future Big Ten Foe Maryland
The Bruins made the most of their first night in the Big Ten.
Of course, it will take another 18 months before the blue and gold officially change conferences, but the University of California Board of Regents finally gave their long-awaited approval for the move Wednesday in Westwood.
Just over 2,000 miles away, No. 16 UCLA men's basketball (9-2, 2-0 Pac-12) followed up that news by manhandling future conference foe No. 20 Maryland (8-3, 1-1 Big Ten) en route to a 87-60 victory in College Park. It was hardly ever a contest, and the Bruins led by as many as 38 points in what turned out to be their biggest win over a ranked opponent since 2009-2010.
UCLA committed just four turnovers while forcing 16, ending the night with a 19-4 advantage in points off turnovers. The Bruins also scored 44 points in the paint to the Terrapins 16.
It took nearly three full minutes for either team to score, before guard Jaylen Clark got on the board first with an and-1. Center Adem Bona corralled the rebound when the Terrapins tried to answer, and point guard Tyger Campbell wound up tossing an alley-oop to guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. that added to the lead.
Bona hit his defender with a spin move and a successful jump hook on the Bruins' next trip down the floor, and UCLA suddenly led 7-0.
Maryland finally broke the seal with a second-chance 3-pointer five minutes after the opening tip, snapping their 0-for-8 start from the field. UCLA rattled off five makes in a row, though, forcing four turnovers in a row by drawing two offensive fouls and coming away with two steals.
Even when the Terrapins ended the 10-0 run with a fast break layup, guard David Singleton drained a fallaway jumper and guard Amari Bailey threw down a left-handed slam. After big man Kenny Nwuba reeled in an offensive board and found Singleton for a second-chance triple, the sharpshooter celebrated with his raucous bench as the home crowd showered the court with boos.
With 5:09 left in the first half, coach Kevin Willard burned his second-to-last timeout after watching Singleton knock down another 3-pointer to put the Terrapins in a 32-11 hole.
Yet another chat with his players didn't do much to change their fortunes, though, as Jaquez drained another midrange jumper to extend the leap to 23. After facing up a defender and nearly spinning to the hole for another bucket, Jaquez got fouled and hit two more free throws. Clark picked off another pass and finished with an and-1 and the other end to make it a 13-0 run.
That 30-6 stretch turned it from a one-sided contest into a bona fide blowout, and Jaquez's turnaround jumper at the buzzer made it 49-20 at the half. That marked UCLA's largest halftime lead in eight years, and it was the second-biggest halftime deficit Maryland had faced since the 2009-2010 season.
The Terrapins committed 11 turnovers in the first half alone – leading to 17 Bruin points – and only hit eight field goals.
Things didn't change in the second half, either, as Maryland immediately committed an offensive foul and turn it over before allowing yet another Jaquez layup. Singleton knocked down another couple of long balls to keep UCLA up by over 30, and Bona's two standing dunks didn't hurt either.
The two sides traded buckets for the next chunk of the contest, before Bona eventually made it a 38-point gap with 5:46 to go. Maryland staged a 14-4 run to finally trim the lead to under 30 with just over a minute to go, but it was too little, too late.
Clark led UCLA with 19 points, also finishing with six rebounds, three assists and four steals. Singleton scored 18 points behind four 3-pointers, while Jaquez and Bona dropped 14 apiece.
As a team, the Bruins posted a .556/.417/.857 shooting line. The Terrapins, on the other hand, shot .404/.370/.667.
UCLA will continue its East Coast road trip with another ranked matchup Saturday against No. 13 Kentucky in New York City. That game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. in Madison Square Garden and will be televised on CBS.
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