UCLA Basketball: Mick Cronin Singles Out Main Factor Behind Bruins' 2nd Half Collapse Vs Marquette

Your UCLA Bruins dropped their first game of the season in the opening round of the Maui Invitational to Marquette by a score of 71-69. It was a tight game throughout, and the Bruins just couldn't make the big play at the end.

Head coach Mick Cronin pointed to the Bruins youth as a main reason for dropping the game, but he was hopeful for their future.

“It took us too long to get our composure back, and that’s where you don’t have a veteran guy – Adem’s a great player, he’s still a sophomore – so that showed,” said coach Mick Cronin. “The second thing it showed was too many defensive breakdowns against their penetration.”

Per Mick Cronin via DailyBruin.com

Sophomore Adem Bona scored 13 points for UCLA in the game, but he knows that they could have done more. He admitted that they let the game get away from themselves a little bit.

“We got distracted a little bit and lost sight of the game plan we had,” Bona said.Towards the end of the game, we got back into the game plan.”

Per Adem Bona via DailyBruin.com

UCLA hung around quite well against the fourth-ranked team in the country, despite everything going against them. They have to be feeling good about themselves even in the loss, and they can learn from this outcome.

The Bruins always know this season could be a little tougher due to their age across the roster. But so far, they are outperforming what many believed they could do with this team.

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