Going into Wednesday’s Top 25 road clash at Maryland, UCLA men’s basketball head coach Mick Cronin said “we shall see” whether his mix of upperclassmen and key freshmen would take a step forward and be a different team than the one that dropped a pair of games to ranked opponents last month.

The Bruins delivered a resounding answer out of the gate and did not let up.

No. 16 UCLA led by as many as 38 and never trailed en route to hammering future conference foe No. 20 Maryland, 87-60, on the same day the school’s upcoming move to the Big Ten Conference was finalized.

Junior guard Jaylen Clark scored a game-high 19 points, reserve David Singleton added 18 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Adem Bona chipped in 14 apiece for UCLA (9-2), which shot 55.6% and rolled to its sixth consecutive win.

Reserve guard Ian Martinez scored 16 points to pace Maryland (8-3), which shot just 40.4% and committed 16 turnovers.

The Bruins improved to 1-2 against ranked opponents this season.

UCLA point guard Tyger Campbell picked up his second foul with 15:32 to play in the opening half.

That did not slow down the Bruins, who opened the game on a 19-5 run and led by as many as 30 in the first half.

UCLA, as it has throughout its win streak, relied on its defense to stun the road crowd. The Bruins collected 10 steals before the halftime break and finished with 13.

At one point, UCLA had as many points off turnovers (11) as Maryland had points scored and finished the half with 17 points off the Terrapins’ 11 first-half turnovers.

The Bruins scored 13 consecutive points before the Terrapins scored on a layup to cut the deficit to 39-13 late in the half.

The 49-20 halftime lead was the largest margin between teams ranked by the Associated Press since the 2009-10 season.

UCLA’s backcourt received a huge boost off the bench from Singleton, who made all five of his first-half shots and carried his hot shooting into the second half.

His play was particularly important given the early foul trouble. Singleton finished 7 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range.

Clark’s performances on defense are a regular, expected occurrence. To go with his three first-half steals, UCLA also got four from Jaquez Jr. before the break.

Both players finished with four steals.

Singleton’s best shot that kind of told the story of the game was from long distance at the 5:12 mark to push the lead to 21.

The fifth-year senior immediately put a finger up to his lips as he looked at the stunned road crowd.

On top of the great defensive performance to open the game, UCLA was efficient and had just one first-half turnover. More impressively, the Bruins did so while Campbell and backup point guard Dylan Andrews logged just 10 combined first-half minutes with two fouls apiece.

Just as important, the Bruins showed they can play with a large lead — which was not the case last month after squandering a 15-point second-half lead in a loss to Illinois in Las Vegas.

The Bruins’ fourth and final turnover was only because of a shot-clock violation while dribbling out the clock at the end of the impressive win.

Starting five

PG Tyger Campbell: 9 pts on 3/5 shooting (1/1 3-ptrs), 1 reb, 1 asst, 2 stls

G Amari Bailey: # pts on #/# shooting (#/# 3-ptrs), # rebs, # stls

G Jaylen Clark: 19 pts on 7/11 shooting (0/2 3-ptrs), 6 rebs, 3 asst, 4 stls

G/F Jaime Jaquez Jr.: 14 pts on 6/14 shooting (0/1 3-ptrs), 7 rebs, 4 stls

F/C Adem Bona: 14 pts on 7/8 shooting, 7 rebs, 1 blk

Bench

G David Singleton: 18 pts on 7/10 shooting (4/5 3-ptrs), 1 reb, 2 asst

F/C Kenneth Nwuba: 3 rebs, 1 asst

F Mac Etienne: 2 pts on 1/2 shooting

G Dylan Andrews: 4 pts on 1/1 shooting, # rebs, # asst

G Will McClendon: 3 pts on 1/3 shooting (0/2 3-ptrs), 1 asst

G/F Abramo Canka: 0 pts on 0/2 shooting, 1 stl

G Russell Stong: 1 reb

F Evan Manjikian: DNP (coach’s decision)

F Logan Cremonesi: DNP (coach’s decision)

G Jack Seidler: DNP (coach’s decision)