No. 4 UCLA Starts Slows, Pulls Away From Arizona State
No. 4-ranked UCLA shook off a sluggish start to remain perfect at home, overwhelming Arizona State on the defensive end en route to a 79–61 win Thursday, March 2, in Los Angeles.
The Bruins (26–4, 17–2 Pac-12 Conference) won their ninth straight overall and improved to 16–0 at home—one win away from closing out a perfect season at Pauley Pavilion—thanks to a dominant second half.
UCLA was outscored 12–2 in the opening 4:38, but whittled away at the deficit throughout the rest of the first half.
After pulling ahead 36–32 at the break thanks to Tyger Campbell’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, the Bruins inundated Arizona State out of the locker room with runs of 14–5 and 16–5.
UCLA held the Sun Devils to just 9–of–25 shooting from the floor in the second half. UCLA was able to hold an advantage of up to 20 points thanks to its defense.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. led all scorers with 26 points, including a thunderous dunk on the drive over Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr. Jaquez also grabbed seven rebounds, contributing to UCLA’s 47–23 advantage on the glass.
Jaylen and Adem Bona were the Bruins’ best rebounders with 11 boards, respectively. Amari Bailey had nine rebounds. Clark scored 15 points to complete a double-double.
Campbell scored 18 points for UCLA.
DJ Horne led Arizona State (20–10, 11–8) with 13 points and was 3–for–5 from 3-point range. The Sun Devils outscored UCLA 21–12 from beyond the arc, but were otherwise overmatched.
Arizona State was able to score just 22 points against UCLA’s 36. The Sun Devils were 12 of 20 at the foul-line, while the Bruins were 23 out of 27.
Cambridge scored 10 points in this loss. Warren Washington scored 12 points, while grabbing six rebounds for the team.
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