Westwood, CA – The UCLA men’s basketball team led from nearly start to finish as they took down the Washington Huskies and their first ever big 10 conference game.
The Bruins came away with a 69–58 win over the Huskies at the Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday night. It was another big game from UCLA’s leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau, who finished the game with 16 points.
However, it was UCLA guard Sebastian Mack who stole the show for the Bruins. Mack had 16 points off the bench in an offensive outburst as he finished tied with Bilodeau as the game’s leading scorer.
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said that he’s come to expect high-scoring games like this from Mack, especially when the starting five can’t get much going offensively.
“He’s been great all year. He’s been the only consistent offensive threat for us on the perimeter. He still needs to improve on the defensive end, but it’s nice to have somebody like him who can create offense for us when we’re struggling,” Cronin said.
Mack credited his teammates for helping him get hot early on and feeding him the ball. UCLA finished with 16 assists in the win over Washington.
“My teammates knew I had the hand tonight, and I realize it when my other guys have the hand too. We’ve got a lot of great guys on our team, so we can bounce off of each other,” Mack said.
Cronin added that UCLA won the game because of the way they handled the ball, both offensively and defensively.
“I told the guys, we won because we only had eight turnovers and we took care of the ball. We had 16 assists, and that’s with missing a bunch of shots that were extremely makeable. Our passing, our team play, our execution was good. We rebounded it as hard as we could. The first half, that’s we were winning. When you take care of the ball, play defense, and get second shots, it puts pressure on the other team. Eventually, the ball goes in. But our constant is our defense,” Cronin said.
It was a back-and-forth affair in the first ten minutes of the game. Neither team could find much separation until UCLA picked up a 21-12 lead with 9:54 left in the first half.
Washington whittled away at UCLA’s lead and just as quickly as they went up, the Huskies brought it back to a 23-21 game with 3:33 left in the half.
The Bruins escaped into the half with a 29-24 lead, but opened the second half with a bit more juice.
UCLA kept their foot on the gas, but never ran away with the game. Washington would get within four points early in the second half, but never capitalized as the Bruins kept the Huskies at bay.
UCLA moves to a 7-1 record, a more promising start compared to last season’s 5-3 start. The Bruins will travel to Oregon to take on the undefeated No. 12-ranked Ducks. The game will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and tip-off is at 3 p.m
