Jacob Young made back-to-back baskets to give Oregon a four-point lead with 24 seconds remaining and the Ducks went on to upset No. 3 UCLA 84-81 in overtime on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA took the floor for the first time this season looking to build off a run to the Final Four last April.
The USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins shook the men’s basketball world with their prominent runs in March Madness. Both teams defied the odds to display their strong programs.
The #23 ranked Bruins defeated Oregon State 57-52 in a night where they struggled shooting the basketball. UCLA led by forward Cody Riley, who finished with a double, double, 16 points, and ten rebounds.
Due to the coronavirus, this is the earliest point in any season schedule in which the Bruins have played a league game in the modern era.
UCLA’s big win over ranked opponent No. 20 Colorado 72-68 on Thursday night has the Bruins back in the Pac-12 hunt leveling their conference record to 4-4, powered by Chris Smith’s 30 point game.
“I really wanted this bad. This game, being a rivalry game, and me not being from here, so I didn’t know how big it is. I’m from Chicago, but it was really important to me to get this win,” said USC senior Nick Rakocevic on the importance of beating crosstown rival UCLA.
The UCLA Bruins held a 22-point lead and were in cruise control, clinging to snap a three-game losing streak. In an instance, the unthinkable happen and Pauley Pavilion was at a loss for words when watching what had just taken place. Utah’s Parker Van Dyke buried a heavily contested NBA range 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Utes it’s only lead of the game as the time expired. Van Dykes fifth three-point basket of the game capped a 23-9 run in the final 2:45 of play and Utah went on to steal a 93-92 victory over UCLA on Saturday.
The USC men’s basketball team protected home court on Saturday, Jan. 19, at Galen Center with a resounding 80-67 win over UCLA that snapped a four game losing streak to the Trojans’ crosstown rival.
Abysmal free-throw shooting, and costly late game turnovers resulted in a 74-72 loss to Belmont Saturday afternoon after Kevin McClain found a wide-open back door cut that quickly turned into the game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds left.