UCLA has been asking a lot more of sophomore center Aday Mara this week, and he keeps delivering.
After playing a then-season-high 21 minutes and scoring 22 points Tuesday in the Bruins' win over Wisconsin, Mara was pushed into an even bigger role Friday night at Washington when leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau was sidelined the rest of the night with an ankle injury just minutes into the game.
Mara again came through with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks in 30 minutes off the bench in UCLA's 65-60 win over the Huskies in Seattle.
Without Bilodeau, the Bruins (14-6, 5-4 Big Ten) got by with Mara's contributions, 12 points and 6 rebounds from Skyy Clark, 11 points and 9 boards from Kobe Johnson and 11 points from Eric Dailey Jr. in a balanced effort.
"I’m surprised that I didn’t get tired that much, I’m surprised about that, but I was feeling good," said Mara, who hadn't played more than 11 minutes in a game all month before seeing his role expand these last two contests. "I knew that Tyler wasn’t going to be able to play because of his injury, so I just tried to not make stupid fouls, I tried to make a rhythm so I don’t be too tired, but I wasn’t expecting that. ...
"I feel good for the team because I was able to help the team on the court in both of these games, but also it feels like good for me because I get some confidence when I come in the game, but yeah, just happy to be able to help the team."
Said teammate Dylan Andrews: "What he’s doing in these last couple of games is what he does every day in practice. Aday’s a monster and I’m glad people are starting to see that."
Mara made two baskets in the final 2 minutes, including a score with 1:11 left to push UCLA's lead to 60-55.
Washington (10-10, 1-8) would later cut it to 60-57 on a Zoom Diallo layup, but Andrews drained a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left and Clark sealed the win with two late free throws.
"We had a little different played drawn up to iso him, but they denied it and he did a great job of creating," coach Mick Cronin said of Andrews, who was just 4-of-13 from the field for 9 points overall. "You know, I just tried to calm him down throughout the game and told him to get his feet set."
UCLA has now won three straight games heading into its rivalry showdown at USC on Monday.
As for the status of Bilodeau, who averages a team-high 13.9 points per game, Croninin said, "I didn’t like the way he was moving. You know, it’s hard for me to get a lot of info and hard for a trainer to really assess things on the fly like that – he turned his ankle. A kid like him, he’s going to ‘Well, I want to play.’ You can hit him in the head with a bat and he’s going to say, ‘I want to play,’ so he said he wanted to play, I put him in and I didn’t like the way he was moving, so I’m more worried about his career and the rest of our season, and like I told the team, we’ve got enough players – I’ve got confidence in you guys."
