It was déjà vu all over again. Like the game Thursday night against Utah, the Bruins started fast and took a 12-2 lead over the Buffaloes. It looked like the Bruins were going to blow the Buffs out, but like the game two teams played in December, the Bruins had a commanding lead at the half, 43-28, but CU battled back and made things tough on the Bruins.
No. 9 UCLA (13-2, 5-1 Pac-12) held on and defeated Colorado (12-6, 4-4 Pac-12) in another close one to achieve a rare road sweep, 71-65.
Once again, Johnny Juzang was the man of the hour, scoring a game-high 23 points, but it was Tyger Campbell mired recently in a shooting slump hit a clutch three with 1:27 left on the clock that put the Bruins back up by four after the Buffs cut the Bruin lead to one.
How big was Campbell's shot? He only scored four points on the night and was 1-8 from the field.
UCLA was able to outscore Colorado 6-4 over the last minute of the game to secure the sweep.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a solid game scoring 14 points, had a team-high four assists, and came down with five boards. Juzang and Jaquez were the only Bruins to score in double-figures.
Jules Bernard scored nine points, but none more important than his four free throws to keep the Buffs at bay in the game's closing seconds.
Myles Johnson scored the first four points of the game for the Bruins and ended up scoring eight points all in the first half, but he was outstanding on defense, collecting two blocks.
The difference between winning and losing for the Bruins was their defense. Yes, it is true, the Buffs shot 50 percent from the field, hitting 22-44 from the field for the game, but the Bruins forced 21 turnovers and outscored the Buffs 20-8 on points off the turnovers.
The Buffs had four players score in double-figures led a star in the making Jabari Walker who scored 19 points. Evan Battey fought through foul trouble scored 15. Tristan da Silva scored ten, and K.J. Simpson scored ten off the bench. Simpson also tied for a team-high five assists with Nique Clifford.
The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach Mick Cronin was relieved after the hard-fought win and gave his thoughts on the contest.
"Coach [Tad] Boyle does a great job," Cronin said. "[Evan] Battey's got a lot of heart.
"I told the guys at halftime the only chance we got for this being easy is to get up 20 [points]. If not, the students are packed, you're on the road in conference play.
"I've seen that too many times. I'm getting too old. I've just seen it too many times. I told the guys we were not going to win in the teens. You're either going to get up 20, or it's going to be a bloodbath. It became a bloodbath.
"I was proud of our guys. We had the best half of my three years at UCLA in the first half – forced 15 turnovers against Colorado, a well-coached team in their own gym. Our defense in the first half was unbelievable.
"It was equally as bad in the second. Give [Colorado] credit. They've got a never-say-die attitude.
"With that being said, Tyger [Campbell] had a rough road trip offensively, but he and Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] made some monster shots for us.
"I told the guys we started looking for Johnny [Juzang] too much. We've got too many guys. So, we got to stay on the attack. I thought some guys got tentative for a little bit there."
UCLA returns home for three games, starting with a makeup game with No. 3 Arizona on Tuesday, January 25th, with a tipoff scheduled for 8:00 PM PST. The contest will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Cal will be at Pauley on January 27th and then red-hot Stanford on January 29th.
