The UCLA men’s basketball team secured a 77-73 victory over Washington in a Big Ten Conference matchup at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night. Four Bruins players reached double figures, with Trent Perry leading the team by scoring 23 points and making all three of his attempts from beyond the arc. Tyler Bilodeau contributed 19 points, while Donovan Dent added 17 points and 10 assists, marking his third consecutive double-double. Eric Dailey Jr. also scored 14 points.
“Defensively, it’s a fight everyday with this group,” said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach. “I just talked to them. They’re great guys. I love them. We’re not going anywhere if we keep giving up 50 percent from the field – our season will end really quickly. We got offensive talent, but we got to have some guys who care about defense. Our problem is that our best defender has been out for a month [Skyy Clark]. Hopefully he can string together some practices, because we don’t play for a week.”
Washington’s Wesley Yates III led his team with 21 points, shooting 9-for-17 from the field. The Huskies converted five of their seventeen three-point attempts and made twelve out of eighteen free throws.
UCLA gained momentum midway through the second half after Washington missed two technical foul free throws, extending their lead to six points following a three-pointer by Perry at the 7:45 mark. Although Washington narrowed the gap to two points later in the game, Bilodeau responded with a three-point play that restored UCLA’s advantage.
The Bruins maintained control in the final minutes despite two late three-pointers by Quimari Peterson for Washington. Dailey Jr.’s free throws with 21 seconds left and Perry’s pair at nine seconds helped secure the win.
Perry finished having made five of nine shots overall and was nearly perfect from the line, converting ten of eleven free throw attempts as UCLA shot nearly eighty percent from the stripe as a team.
Dent recorded his fourteenth career double-double and was effective at drawing fouls, making seven of eight free throws.
UCLA kept turnovers low for another game, committing seven or fewer for the third time in four contests; in their previous win against Rutgers they had just two turnovers alongside twenty-five assists.
This victory marked UCLA’s sixteenth win over Washington in their last eighteen meetings and completed another regular-season sweep of their West Coast rivals.
Next week, UCLA will travel to face Michigan on Saturday, February 14th at Crisler Center; tip-off is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time (12:45 p.m. Eastern Time). The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS. Following that contest, UCLA is set to play Michigan State on Tuesday night, February 17th.
