UCLA Basketball: How Bruins Recuperated From Early Deficit To Win Regular Season Finale
Your UCLA Bruins managed to put a bow on their relatively unremarkable 15-16 season in 2023-24 with a 59-47 victory over the Arizona State University Sun Devils Saturday night.
Per UCLA Communications, the club found itself in a hole almost right away. Head coach Mick Cronin assumed responsibility for the quick deficit.
"We started the game down nine," Cronin said. "I told you this when you asked me the problem, who is responsible, it’s me. They are good kids, I’m trying to get stuff out of guys that they are probably not ready to give me yet, which is hard. It’s not their fault. It hasn’t been their effort, it hasn’t been their issue, it’s their inexperience. We don’t have the junior or senior anchor, like if Jaylen Clark would not have gotten hurt and say would have came back this year. Somebody like that, our [Pelle] Larsson type guy. We have been battling that all year, it’s a fragile team. Obviously, I would have liked to have gone up 10 [points], and Will [McClendon] not taken a bad three, and Berke [Buyuktuncel] shoot the open three Dylan [Andrews] passed one up. Will took a bad one and Adem was wide open. We are still learning."
ASU led, slightly, at the break, 31-27. In the second half, UCLA turned the game around with a flurry of triples, in combination with plenty of ferocious Adem Bona makes inside. The Bruins outscored the Sun Devils, 32-16, in the third and fourth quarters, closing the game out on a demonstrative 19-1 run. UCLA wrapped up the night shooting 11-of-20 from long range (55%).
"You have to be willing to take it," Cronin said. "You can sit there and say you only had one assist, well if I’m passing the ball and you wont shoot, it’s hard for me to get an assist. We just have to keep playing, keep grinding, keep digging. It’s just what I preach to our guys, they [Arizona State] left the door open with the missed free throws, but our deflections were dormant for a long time, then they picked up on that run. We, I think, had 10 deflections in that 19-1 run, we had 10 deflections. Still not rebounding the ball, today, other than Adem [Bona], we have to rebound the ball better. Brandon [Williams] has a sprained ankle, Berke [Buyuktuncel] is going to be a good player but you have to rebound when your 6 foot 9.”
