This post was updated Feb. 22 at 6:35 p.m.
In four years, Mick Cronin has brought appearances in the Final Four, Sweet 16 and a Pac-12 championship game to Westwood.
The coach has kept the Bruins among the Pac-12’s premier squads since taking over in 2019, but one thing had eluded them: a win at Matthew Knight Arena.
No. 7 UCLA men’s basketball (21-4, 12-2 Pac-12) reversed its misfortunes Saturday night, claiming its fourth straight victory with a 70-63 win over Oregon (15-11, 9-6) in Eugene on Saturday night. Senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the way, bouncing back from a poor-shooting first half to post 25 points while adding to his recent surge on the glass with 12 rebounds.
The Bruins kicked off the night in an uncharacteristically slow fashion, however, as an 0-of-4 start from the floor allowed the home team to get off to a quick 8-0 start. But two jumpers from freshman guard Amari Bailey sparked a 14-2 run to help his team take a 14-10 lead eight minutes into the contest.
Bailey, fresh off a career-high 24-point performance Thursday, kept things going with a team-leading eight points in the opening frame. Though he limped to the locker room with an ankle injury in the closing minutes, Bailey returned to open the second half.
The Bruins couldn’t create separation and had to play catch-up for much of the first period, allowing the Ducks to retake the lead on a 14-5 run, though they managed to trim the deficit to 33-30 by halftime. Jaquez recorded seven points and six rebounds in the first half but shot 1-of-6 from the floor, while Oregon center N’Faly Dante led both sides with 11 points.
The blue and gold’s turnover woes from its win over Oregon State on Thursday continued early in the game Saturday, as the team coughed the ball up six times in the first half while putting up its lowest point total through 20 minutes of play in three weeks.
Early foul trouble plagued the Bruins’ frontcourt, limiting freshman forward Adem Bona and redshirt senior forward/center Kenneth Nwuba to 13 combined minutes in the period with five combined fouls, forcing redshirt freshman forward Mac Etienne onto the floor for an early stretch.
The contest remained tight early in the second frame, but a tip layup from Jaquez followed by fifth-year guard David Singleton’s second 3 of the night sparked a 21-4 run as UCLA regained control, claiming a 55-41 advantage with 10 minutes to play.
Jaquez alone put up 16 points during the run, moving into the top 20 of UCLA’s all-time scoring list with a baseline jumper. The senior shouldered the load in the second half, scoring 18 of his points in the period while singlehandedly outscoring Oregon for much of the frame.
The blue and gold was able to fend off the Duck’s comeback attempts thanks to junior guard Jaylen Clark, who scored nine straight points for the Bruins before a steal and dunk by Jaquez stretched the lead to 18 with five minutes left. A late run from Oregon brought its deficit down to six in the final minute, but the blue and gold was able to hold on as the Ducks’ efforts were too little, too late.
Clark finished as UCLA’s second-leading scorer with 13 points on the night, adding four steals and a 3-pointer to help his team claim a weekend sweep in the Beaver State.
With Stanford upsetting No. 4 Arizona earlier in the day, UCLA was able to gain a two-game hold on first place in the Pac-12 with the win and come one step closer to its first regular-season conference title in 10 years.
