This post was updated Nov. 29 at 5:45 p.m.
SAN DIEGO—After all the wait, the Bruins did something they haven’t done in nine seasons – lose their first game.
No. 22 UCLA men’s basketball (0-1) fell to San Diego State (1-0) by a score of 73-58 Wednesday night in San Diego.
In the early going, the Bruins sank their first three shots en route to an 8-2 lead. UCLA held this lead until San Diego State tied the game 19-19 with 8:36 left to go in the half.
After a missed 3-pointer from redshirt sophomore guard Tyger Campbell and a made free throw by San Diego State, UCLA trailed for the first time all game. The Bruins never regained the lead.
The Bruins had a better shooting percentage than the Aztecs from the field in the first half, shooting 50% to San Diego State’s 38.7%. However, the Aztecs’ eight offensive rebounds and UCLA’s 10 turnovers led to San Diego State having nine more field goal attempts in the half.
Coach Mick Cronin said turnovers and a failure to rebound allowed the Aztecs to get too many extra opportunities.
“You know, you got 15 turnovers in only 43 shots,” Cronin said. “You cannot win when the other team gets 58 shots and you get 43. You don’t need to get admitted to UCLA to know that. That’s 15 more shots than we got, and that came because we’re minus five on turnovers, and we’re minus six on the glass.”
Redshirt junior forward Cody Riley said a lack of aggressiveness was the difference in the rebounding battle.
“We all have to come together and know that we have to be more aggressive on the boards and rebound,” Riley said. “That’s a strong suit of ours, and that’s something that we’re relying on also, so we have to be more aggressive, and today we weren’t.”
UCLA struggled to maintain its shooting form in the second half, starting the half 3-of-11 from the field and 1-of-4 from the three while San Diego State started 7-of-12 from the field and 5-of-9 from the three.
Bruin senior guard Chris Smith scored all 10 of his points in the first half on 3-of-5 shooting, going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line. He went 0-for-2 from the field in the second half and didn’t score a point before fouling out with 4:47 remaining in the game.
San Diego State forward Matt Mitchell and guard Jordan Schakel combined for the first nine Aztec points in the second half, all coming from behind the arc. The two combined for a total of 30 points and shot 6-of-12 from three. San Diego State finished the half making six of its 11 3-point attempts.
UCLA sophomore guard Jake Kyman only attempted a single three the whole game despite leading the Bruins with a 40.3% shooting percentage from three last season. Cronin said Kyman was open, but the team failed to get him the ball.
“I think we missed (Kyman),” Cronin said. “A couple of times we ran some misdirection, and he was open, and we were looking to do things for ourselves instead of getting our teammate a shot. Now, one time we ran a couple of screens for him and teams know, so they’re going to do everything they can to be physical and get up in his ribs and try not to let him get open off a screen.”
The team as a whole made seven 3s Wednesday night, beating last season’s average of 6.6 made 3s per game. UCLA was led by sophomore guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. who made 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and scored a game-high 17 points.
Jaquez Jr. said despite his offensive production, he didn’t perform defensively against the Aztecs.
“I just go out there trying to play as hard as I can and try to get stops on defense,” Jaquez Jr. said. “But you know, going out there, I didn’t play my best game today on the defensive end. That’s what killed us today. Not our offense, (but) defense, which is not good.”
UCLA will match up against Pepperdine on Friday at noon in the Viejas Arena.
