UCLA Men's Basketball Holds On to Beat Stanford, End Losing Streak
In what initially seemed to be a reversal of the last showdown between the Bruins and Cardinal, the blue and gold pulled ahead and held on for the road victory.
No. 12 UCLA men's basketball (17-4, 9-3 Pac-12) was in a bit of a barnburner early on against Stanford (14-9, 7-6), with both sides shooting lights out from the field after such a one-sided defensive affair when they met up last month. The Bruins won that won in wire-to-wire fashion, but trailed early in Tuesday's rematch, only to surge ahead and reform its defense in spurts to win 79-70.
Both teams shot above 50% from the field, compared to Stanford shooting 27.1% and UCLA shooting 37.2 last time around. The Bruins' defensive regression was more in line with how they played against Arizona and Arizona State a week ago, as they lost both of those contests by putting up some of their worst performances of the year on both sides of the ball.
It didn't take long for the offense to recover once the Bruins made it up to Stanford – where they hadn't won since 2015 – but it did take a moment for the defense to settle in after scrambling on double-teams and allowing make after make to start the night.
UCLA opened the night 7-of-11 from the field while Stanford started 7-of-10. That put the Bruins ahead 18-16 for about a minute midway through the first half, taking the lead on a second-chance 3-pointer by guard Tyger Campbell, then answering a game-tying and-1 with a triple by guard David Singleton.
Even though there were only two lead changes in those first 10 minutes, neither team led by more than three points.
The tight affair continued with three more lead changes in the next 90 seconds, and the two sides remained separated by one score or less until guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. spun his way into a fast break layup to make it 31-27 just inside the five-minute mark. That lead may have lasted less than a minute, but guard Johnny Juzang nailed a pull up jumper, Campbell lofted one to Jaquez for another score on the fast break and center Myles Johnson hit a post hook to make it an eight-point contest.
That run coincided with the Bruins finally starting to force the Cardinal into some mistakes, something which came so easily last time the squads met. Stanford turned it over 22 times against UCLA on Jan. 29, but they didn't give the ball away at all on their first 19 possessions Tuesday in Stanford.
Three turnovers before the half was nothing to be ashamed of for the Cardinal based on their Pac-12-worst 15.8 per game on the season, but the giveaways led to four points for the Bruins in addition to a momentum shift that put UCLA up 41-31 at the break.
After missing four open looks to start the second half, the Bruins rode a Juzang four-point play into an 11-0, going up by 15 points with 14:45 to play. Stanford cut it back to single digits by stringing together a 6-of-7 stretch in response, but UCLA shot 9-of-12 after its cold start to the half to keep its opponent at a distance.
The Cardinal kept turning the ball over, letting the Bruins rack up 15 points off of their 11 giveaways by the time the night was done, and UCLA wound led by as many as 15 with five minutes remaining. Juzang did most of the damage in that stretch, hitting floater after floater and jumper after jumper to finish with 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting.
Stanford hit six shots in a row to cut it to seven, but missed free throws, turnovers and travels continued made it hard for them to complete the comeback.
Center Myles Johnson played the most minutes he's played in a single game since forward Cody Riley returned from his ankle sprain, and he helped anchor the Bruins' defense for long stretched in the second half. Guard Jaylen Clark returned from concussion protocols that cause him to miss the last five games, and he too contributed on defense, on the boards and on the fast break.
That duo combined for 10 points, 10 rebounds, one steal and no turnovers, while Singleton also contributed six points off the bench on a pair of 3s. Campbell and Jaquez supplemented Juzang's scoring burst with 14 points apiece, with the former tacking on seven assists and the latter contributing five rebounds.
UCLA will have the next few days off before facing crosstown rival USC at the Galen Center on Saturday. That game will tip off at 7 p.m. as both the Bruins and Trojans look to keep pace
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