UCLA Men's Basketball Upset By Arizona State in Triple Overtime Thriller
For the second time in three days, the Bruins have been upset in the desert.
And much like last time, they went down early, battled their way back and had multiple chances to win despite all the mishaps and missed shots.
Johnny Juzang missed a potential game-winner at the end of regulation, Jaime Jaquez Jr. turned it over at the end of overtime then missed with time running out in double-overtime, and Peyton Watson's heave from the corner came nowhere near the hoop in the third and final overtime.
Those misses were just a few of the many, and as the Bruins left the court with their heads hung low, they were replaced by the wave of Sun Devil fans ready to celebrate their team's victory.
No. 3 UCLA men's basketball (16-4, 8-3 Pac-12) wound up losing 87-84 in three overtimes to Arizona State (7-13, 3-7), allowing one of the bottom-10 offenses in the nation to put up a season-high in points. Many of those came in the 15 extra minutes of game time, but the Bruins were still outshot from the field and from deep in the first and second halves.
Arizona State, which entered the night ranked dead last in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, free throw percentage, points per game and assists per game, actually opened the night 7-of-17 with a couple of triples from guard Marreon Jackson.
The Bruins opened 10-of-20 from the field, keeping their distance from the surging Sun Devils despite the defensive mishaps against the conference's worst offensive team. Jaquez put up 11 points in the first 12 minutes, and after forward Cody Riley knocked down a string of free throws, UCLA led 28-21.
Arizona State flipped a switch, though, tying it up just 90 seconds later. The Sun Devils drilled three 3-pointers to close out the second half, going into the break with a lead for the first time this conference season.
The run Arizona State strung together to end the first half spilled over into the second, besting UCLA 18-2 in an eight-minute span that put the underdog in the driver's seat.
Jaquez got a post hook to fall more than three minutes into the second half, finally getting the Bruins on the board and ending an 11-0 run, but forward Alonzo Gaffney knocked down another 3-pointer to make it an 45-34 Sun Devils.
A dunk by center Myles Johnson and seven-straight points by Juzang ultimately helped UCLA close the gap to five.
Arizona State came into the contest committing the most fouls per game in the Pac-12, and that issue peeked through in the second half on Saturday as well. The Sun Devils were already in the bonus with over 10 minutes left in the game, sending the Bruins to the line for 1-and-1s from then on out.
The copious amount of free throws UCLA was getting kept things close, but missed seven straight misses from the field prevented the Bruins from truly taking charge.
That's when guard Tyger Campbell, who missed his first six shots of the night, finally got a 3-pointer to go on a kick out from Jaquez. After a chaotic stretch on the other end with no-calls, missed layups and fights for loose balls, guard Jules Bernard air-balled the 3 that would have tied things up at 52 apiece.
Johnson got the offensive board and hit 1-of-2 free throws to close the gap, all the while Arizona State missed seven straight shots of their own. Johnson picked up a goaltending that finally ended the Sun Devils' scoring drought, only for Juzang to wipe it away with a jumper in the paint on the other end.
The back-and-forth nature continued when Kimani Lawrence got a second-chance score, which Campbell answered with a bucket of his own. Riley finally got a shot to fall, rolling in a post hook that tied the game at 56, then Jaquez got a steal and pushed it ahead to Juzang for the go-ahead layup inside the three-minute mark.
Behind their four-straight makes, the Bruins strung together a 13-4 run to take their first lead in nearly 20 minutes of game time. Lawrence hit two free throws to stop the bleeding and tie things up, then Campbell had a 3 go in-and-out that could have broken said tie.
Jaquez drew a loose ball foul on the other end, drilling both free throws that came out of it, but forward Jalen Graham answered with two free throws after Riley got called for an off-ball foul.
Juzang went iso, split the double team and floated in the go-ahead score with less than a minute to play, only for Campbell to get overaggressive on the other end and send Graham to the line to tie it up once more. Coach Mick Cronin called a timeout and drew up another play for Juzang, who missed with eight seconds left.
Jackson then bombed a 35-footer with time to spare, and after it missed the mark, the teams go set for overtime. Jackson got Arizona State's first five points of the extra period, which wound up being just as back-and-forth as the end up regulation.
Jaquez's pump fake into an and-1 put UCLA back up by a point, then it got tied up when Jackson went 1-of-2 from the line. Juzang had a chance to win the game with 33 seconds left, but he air-balled his 3, then Jackson clanked his 3 with Jaquez's hand in his face.
The Bruins gave it right back when Jaquez launched his inbounds pass several feet over Johnson, and the Sun Devils got another chance with 1.4 seconds to go. Guard DJ Horne got a clean look and missed, sending the game to double overtime.
Johnson opened the scoring with a layup in the post, then after Jackson hit a pair of free throws, Jaquez hit a fadeaway baseline jumper and Graham rolled to the hole for a dunk . The game remained tied – from the last four minutes of regulation through each of the first two overtimes, the teams were never separated by more than one possession.
Arizona State got 11 of its 18 points from the free throw line in that span, compared to just three made free throws by UCLA.
More missed last-second shots, including another by Jackson and one by Jaquez, pushed the game to a third overtime, where Arizona State hit its first two 3-pointers to get their exhausted home crowd back on its feet. The Bruins then became the beneficiaries of a handful of free throws, with Jaquez knocking down four in a row, while the Sun Devils kept hitting shots to go up 84-78.
Meanwhile, Juzang missed eight straight shots, and UCLA couldn't get anything going until Campbell sank a floater with just over a minute to go. Some turnovers and missed free throws set the Bruins up with yet another chance to win, but Jaquez's purposely-missed free throw took an odd bounce towards the corner, where Watson was hardly able to collect it before flinging it somewhat in the general direction of the rim.
Like all the other tries, it was off the mark.
Jaquez led the way with 27 points, 10 of which came from the line, and Juzang managed to break 20 on 22 shots. The pair each recorded a double-double, helping UCLA win the rebounding battle, but the fact that no one on the team hit more than one 3-pointer was just one of the many reasons the team crumbled down the stretch.
The Bruins now sit two games back from Arizona for first place in the Pac-12 after entering the week in that top spot. The blue and gold have lost back-to-back games for the first time all season as well, and they'll have to wait until Tuesday to break that skid on the road against Stanford.
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