UCLA Basketball: Star Bruins Bemoan Brutal Second-Half Beatdown By Utes
The UCLA Bruins men's basketball team was simply embarrassed in their last game against the Utah Utes. The final score was 90-44 in what was a beatdown by the Utes over UCLA.
The Bruins only trailed by 10 entering halftime, but they let the game completely slip away from them after that. The Utes scored 57 points in the second half, leading to the route that took place.
Guard Lazar Stefanovic broke down what happened, and how the Bruins let the Utes dominate them.
“It’s terrible. We got to watch. We got to learn from it. We got to play tougher. Rebound the ball. Our effort has to be better. We have to be better in every aspect of the game. We can’t let that happen.”
Stefanovic scored just eight points in the 33 minutes that he played, and it was a bad showing from everyone on the roster. Anytime a team allows an opponent to dominate them like Utah did, it's embarrassing.
“We couldn’t get a rebound. They were shooting until they were making it and they start making it right away and we just couldn’t get a stop.”
The Bruins have typically been known for their defensive reputation, but the rails all fell off against Utah. UCLA has shown its youth this season by not being able to close out games, but this was a lack of execution on their part.
Guard Dylan Andrews opened up about the game, and he knows that they can't let this happen again.
“It sucks to lose a game like this. But we have to stay positive, man. They were killing us on the offensive rebounds, second-chance points, and-ones. They started to carry the momentum and we couldn’t stop it. So, the game carried on and that was the result of it. But we got to be better.”
All the Bruins can do from a performance like this is to trash the film. There isn't much that they can learn from, and they can just hope that they execute better moving forward.
