Junior guard Jaylen Clark continued to impress by scoring a game-high 18 points, leading No. 13 UCLA Men’s Basketball to an 81-54 win over UC Davis on Wednesday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins (11-2) extended their winning streak to eight games, its longest streak since winning 10 straight games back in the 2016-17 year. The Aggies dropped to 7-5 on the season with the loss.
“We just have to keep playing like we have everything to lose,” said Senior guard Tyger Campbell, who finished with 17 points and five assists for the Bruins.
Clark flashed his two-way ability once more by tallying a team-best 11 rebounds to go along with two steals to help UCLA force 20 turnovers on the day.
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“Well to him, he’s stepping in and stealing that ball three seconds before he steals it. You’ve got to position yourself to make plays,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin on Clark.
Senior forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 14 points, eight rebounds, and three assists for the Bruins while freshman forward Adem Bona added nine points, six rebounds, and two blocked shots.
UCLA led 33-21 at halftime, controlling the momentum of the game but missed lightly contested layups on numerous occasions which allowed UC Davis to stay in the game early on.
“I knew coming in, especially after last week, and with it being the holiday and everybody being ready to go home and see their families, it was going to be a hard game to get up for,” said Clark. And that’s no disrespect to UC Davis, but I figured that’s just what people know. We got off to a slow start.”
The Bruins were able to turn things around in the second half by going on a 16-8 run that allowed UCLA to stretch their lead to 51-31 after freshman guard Dylan Andrews made a jumper with 13:20 remaining.
UCLA went on to lead by as many as 29 points after fifth-year guard David Singleton drained a three-pointer with 1:25 left in the game and the Bruins were able to capture an 81-54 victory.
“I think we came out in the second half and we figured it out more. We ran some better sets and did better down the stretch,” Campbell said.
UCLA will next prepare for conference play after a brief holiday break and travel to Pullman to face the Washington State Cougars (5-6) on Friday, Dec. 30, at 8 p.m.
