UCLA Men's Basketball Surges to Bounceback Win Over Washington State

With two new starters in the lineup, the Bruins used high-level shooting to power themselves to a home win over the Cougars.

In more ways than one, the Bruins were a new-look squad Thursday night.

For a team that came into the contest having lost three out of four, it turns out that was exactly what they needed to get back in the win column.

No. 13 UCLA men's basketball (18-5, 10-4 Pac-12) took care of business against Washington State (14-11, 7-7) at Pauley Pavilion, winning 76-56 to hand the Cougars their fourth-straight loss. The Bruins, although they still entered the night as one of the top teams in the conference, were shooting 39.4% from the field and 23.7% from deep across their previous five outings while averaging 67.4 in regulation.

Those trends all took sharps turns Thursday, with UCLA hitting 51.9% of its field goals and 50% of its 3-pointers to post its most efficient offensive night and largest margin of victory since January.

"If we weren't gonna make one soon, I was gonna shave my head," said coach Mick Cronin. "It's hard to win when the ball never goes in, so it was nice to finally knock down some open looks."

And they did all of that without one of their most consistent offensive centerpieces at the point and a lineup change down low.

Forward Cody Riley came off the bench – something Cronin tipped off when he didn't have him start the second half against USC last Saturday – while guard Tyger Campbell was unavailable due to a violation of team rules. While Riley had missed plenty of starts due to a knee injury in November, the Bruins hadn't played a game without Campbell in the starting lineup since March 14, 2019 at the Pac-12 Tournament.

Clark and center Myles Johnson, their replacements in the starting five, scored the first two buckets of the night before guard Johnny Juzang hit a 3-pointer that forced Washington State to take a quick timeout. UCLA continued its run to open the game with a couple steals and two more baskets and a free throw by Clark, giving him eight points, two takeaways, one rebound and one assist through five minutes of play.

"I would take you guys back to the beginning of the year when I told you I didn’t know how I wasn’t going to start (Clark)," Cronin said. "He’s had a tough year with the injuries and it’s really hurt us. This was the first week in two months that he was able to string together three straight practices, so hence you’re starting to see him getting in shape."

The Bruins led 12-2 at the first media timeout, then extended their lead to 20-7 guard/forward Peyton Watson finished a fast break layup and Clark kicked out to guard/forward Jake Kyman for a 3-pointer. Clark wound up scoring or assisting 16 of UCLA's first 20 points before taking his first break of the night.

When Clark re-entered the game two minutes later, the Bruins were still stuck at 20 points. It took another minute before UCLA scored again, but it was Clark who corralled the offensive rebound and put it right back up for two points. Clark drove and kicked to guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. for a midrange jumper on the next possession, then the rangy guard hit a layup off a backdoor cut on the other end of the media timeout, making it 22 out of 26 points that came from Clark in one way or another.

"On the offensive side, I don’t really pay attention to that as much as the defensive side," Clark said. "I let the offensive side take care of itself. I’m an unselfish player, I know how to find my team. They allowed me to really play my game tonight."

The two sides then traded 3s for a moment, with guard Jules Bernard getting one to go between triples by forwards Andrej Jakimovski and DJ Rodman. After the Cougars had cut the deficit to nine, guard David Singleton hit a 3-pointer of his own, and Bernard did the same after it got cut to 10.

UCLA was shooting 15-of-23 from the field to that point, but its defense was starting to wane since the opening moments.

Washington State missed its first seven shots of the night, then missed six of its next eight. The Cougars then nailed seven of their next nine attempts, including four 3-pointers.

That burst coincided with a 1-of-6 stretch for the Bruins that also included a rush of turnovers. UCLA led 39-29 at the break, but they had already matched their season average with nine giveaways.

Johnson picked up his fifth turnover of the night one minute into the second half, and it turned into a 3-pointer on the other end for Washington State. The Bruins' lead was cut to seven, the smallest it had been since the opening four minutes, and the Cougars had gotten 10 of their 32 points off of turnovers.

Clark's up-and-under layup helped UCLA fend off Washington State for a moment, only for Jakimovski to erase that. A travel by Riley gave the Cougars another free possession, which they converted into three free throws after a foul by Watson.

All of a sudden, what looked like it was well on its way to becoming a blowout midway through the first half was a four-point game with over 16 minutes left on the clock.

Over the next 10 minutes, UCLA had just one turnover and wound up multiplying its lead by five in that stretch.

Juzang hit a pair of free throws and a layup in traffic to give the Bruins some more breathing room. Riley tried to give his team an extra boost with an energetic dunk, but got fouled on the attempt. The big man wasn't about to give up, though – Riley hit both free throws, picked up a steal at midcourt, led the fast break and slammed down an and-1 to get the crowd back on its feet, chest-bumping Clark under the hoop in celebration.

"I thought Cody responded great, I loved his response," Cronin said. "Two years ago, if you remember, he dominated the overtime when we beat Washington State at home, he had like eight straight. He had a couple big time offensive rebounds today. He's gotta become – we need physicality and toughness."

Kyman hit a 3-pointer the next possession, then Clark picked up another steal and got three the old-fashioned way to put UCLA back up 56-38.

From there, the Bruins put it in cruise control, going up by as many as 25 and leading by 20-plus for most of the final 10 minutes. Juzang racked up some garbage time points to finish with a team-high 19, not missing a single one of his three 3-point attempts along the way.

Clark finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four steals, which were all career-highs for the sophomore Swiss Army Knife.

"Oh man, it was was great," Juzang said. "That guy’s a dog, man, you see it every day in practice. ... We’re all so happy for him, nobody is surprised."

Riley, Bernard and Kyman put up nine, eight and eight points, respectively.

UCLA will return to Pauley Pavilion for a matchup with Washington at Saturday, with that game set to tip off at 7 p.m. The showdown between the Bruins and Huskies – their first meeting of the year – will be televised on FS1.

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