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.
The UCLA Bruins beat Mountain West opponent, San Jose State Spartans in a massive 93-64 victory. Improving to 6-3 on the season, the Bruins will need to keep their losses in check with tough opponents awaiting.
UCLA improved to 2-0 in large part of a second-half surge, defeating UC Santa Barbara at the Pauley Pavilion 77-61. From the opening tip-off, the contest shaped up to be a carbon copy of the previous sluggish start against Long Beach State University. The second half defense propelled the Bruins to a victory against LBSU, and history repeated itself against UCSB. “Really happy with our effort in the second half, 17 deflections. They’re a hard team to turn over because they’re a veteran team with veteran guards. I thought our defensive intensity definitely changed and we actually made a few
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.
UCLA got out and ran the lanes throughout the game, forcing the Cardinal into 13 turnovers while holding them to 30 percent from three-point distance and 40 percent overall through 20 minutes of play.
In their second all-time meeting, UCLA avenged a March 11, 1999 NCAA Tournament upset against the Detroit Mercy Sunday night at Pauley Pavilion, defeating the Titans 106-73 after giving the home crowd a special night that was filled with spectacular dunks.