This post was updated Nov. 12 at 12:13 a.m.
No Dent.
No problem.
In its first game without senior guard – and reigning Mountain West Player of the Year and AP All-America honorable mention – Donovan Dent, No. 15 UCLA men’s basketball (3-0) defeated West Georgia (1-2) 83-62 on Monday night at Pauley Pavilion. In the absence of the Naismith Trophy watchlist nominee, sophomore guard Trent Perry notched 17 points and nine assists in his first collegiate start.
While it was Perry’s night to savor, the Wolves brought a tropical cyclone from the Peach State to La La Land.
And when it rains, it pours.
West Georgia brought the UCLA lead to just five at halftime, powered by 9-for-13 shooting from beyond the arc, four of which were courtesy of guard Brady Hardewig. The Cincinnati local knocked in 14 points in the affair and shot 5-for-8 from the field and 57.1% from beyond the arc.
Twenty-seven of the Wolves’ 32 first-half points came from beyond the arc as constant rotations from the UCLA defense allowed for open shots from the 3-point line. The Bruins stayed staunch in the interior, allowing just five points in the paint in the first half.
“I know you guys think I’m nuts, but it’s great for us,” said coach Mick Cronin. “The worst thing (that) can happen is when a team just lays down and lets you win, because it’s already hard enough to get your guys to live in a realistic state – the hardest thing there is in today’s world of coaching, because I’m the bad guy when I tell them the truth, so I was really, really happy for the guys.”
Joining Hardewig from deep was guard Chas Lewless, who knocked in 13 points on 3-for-7 shooting from deep. As a squad, the Wolves went 13-for-25 from deep, the highest percentage allowed by a UCLA defense since the team’s loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament last season March 14, 2025.
Despite West Georgia’s 3-point storm, Perry wasted no time taking advantage of his moment.
“We were losing shooters. Our deflection point was really low. We probably had maybe around 15 to 20,” Perry said. “Coach said, ‘Comfortable teams make comfortable players.’ And they were pretty comfortable in our home gym, especially in the first half. The second half, we had to have a long talk, and we had to up the energy.”
The former four-star prospect and McDonald’s All-American shot 5-for-11 from the field and maintained the team’s primary ball-handler role while Dent was sidelined. Perry’s backcourt counterpart, senior guard Skyy Clark, struggled shooting the ball, going 3-for-8 from the field for eight points – his lowest production since on March 14.
Perry said whether it’s coming off the bench or starting, he only focuses on himself and doing what’s best for the team.
“You can only control your effort,” Perry said. “Coach always tells me – don’t worry about offense that much. Always control defense and rebounds and whether that’s nine minutes, 20 minutes, 37 minutes, that’s what I came out there to do. Control the controllables.”
With Dent on the bench and Clark failing to light up the stat sheet, senior forward Tyler Bilodeau and junior guard/forward Eric Dailey shouldered the bulk of the scoring. The transfer tandem from last season combined for 35 points on 12-for-21 shooting and seven rebounds.
Dailey and Bilodeau both found their groove from the short to middle range with turnaround jumpers and step-back attempts off the dribble that forced West Georgia’s defenders to sag in an attempt to protect the paint and the rim.
UCLA, for the most part, weathered the West Georgia storm after halftime, tempering the Wolves’ shooting stroke and limiting them to just 30 second-half points.
The Bruins also took care of the turnover battle, committing just 11 errors to the Wolves’ 17. West Georgia’s mistakes turned into UCLA points, with the latter notching 23 throughout the affair.
“That’s basketball,” Bilodeau said. “It’s a game of runs. Obviously, like Trent said, we had to be better defensively. But, give credit to them. They made shots. And that’s what teams are going to do. They’re going to play their best when they come into Pauley, so we got to be ready for that.”
In a game that was largely dominated from beyond the arc, junior forward/center Xavier Booker and redshirt senior forward/center Steven Jamerson II struggled to make their impact felt. Booker – who earned Player of the Game honors after dropping 15 points, five rebounds and five blocks against Pepperdine on Nov. 7 – notched just four points, and Jamerson rattled in only seven.
However, Booker was able to light up the statsheet in other areas, garnering six rebounds, two blocks and four assists.
UCLA’s victory over West Georgia is the team’s last game before facing its first ranked opponent this season in No. 5 Arizona at the Intuit Dome on Friday.
And while Dent missed Monday’s affair, he is considered day-to-day with his muscle strain, and his absence is tabbed as precautionary, according to a UCLA Athletics spokesperson.
Cronin added after the game that Dent is “likely” to play Friday.
“They better be able to do hard things and play at the high level,” Cronin said of his message to the team on what it needs to do to beat Arizona. “You want to be successful in life, you better be ready to do hard things. That’s one and two, you want to play more. You’ve got to play better than Johnny. In Little League, everybody gets to play. This is pay for play. You want to play, you want to get a promotion, … you’ve got to be better than someone.”
