Coming into Friday’s contest, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin was interested to see how his team would respond when it had to inevitably play from behind in a contest.

He quickly got his wish.

The Bruins erased a 12-point first-half deficit, trailed by as many as 9 after halftime and escaped on Adem Bona’s game-winning layup with 19 seconds left for a 67-66 win over Washington State to resume Pac-12 Conference play.

UCLA (12-2, 3-0 Pac-12) extended its win streak to nine games behind 20 points from senior forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who didn’t make his first shot from the field until the second half. As a team, the Bruins overcame a 36.2% shooting performance by making 21 of 22 free throws.

“You only need to win by one so that’s what we did,” Jaquez Jr. said after the game.

Washington State (5-9, 0-3 Pac-12) was held without a made field goal over the final 7:23.

The Bruins will return to action when they ring in the new year Sunday at Washington (4 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).

UCLA erased a 12-point deficit as David Singleton’s 3-pointer tied the game 39-39 with 16:04 to play.

Wazzu immediately responded with a 14-6 run — including nine consecutive points capped by a pair of DJ Rodman free throws at the 11:32 mark.

Justin Powell’s 3-pointer pushed the Cougars’ lead to 62-53. The Bruins pulled within three points on a pair of occasions, including a Tyger Campbell fallaway mid-range jumper to make it 64-61 with 3:39 left.

A Singleton steal with a little more than 2 minutes to play led to his own jumper to cut the deficit to 64-63.

After the teams traded free throws, Washington State turned the ball over and Bona gave UCLA a 67-66 lead — its first since a 5-3 advantage less than 2 minutes into the contest.

Rodman missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer with 2 seconds left.

Jaquez Jr. missed his first five shots before his jumper with 13:59 to play pulled the Bruins within 43-41.

The Bruins got enough from their senior leader, who was a perfect 10 of 10 at the foul line.

One thing that did travel to Pullman was the team’s defense, particularly late in the game.

Bona and Jaylen Clark each had three steals and Bona added a pair of blocks to lead the way. The freshman big man also grabbed six of his seven rebounds on the defensive glass, a growing point of emphasis for the Bruins.

Campbell’s steal led to Will McClendon’s feed to Bona for the game-winning basket, which was goaltended.

The comeback was made possible by digging itself out of an early hole.

The Bruins trailed by 10 on three occasions in the first half while making just four of their first 23 shots from the field. Jabe Mullins’ 3-pointer gave the Cougars their first double-digit advantage at 26-16 with 8:30 to play in the half.

Wazzu pushed the lead to as large as 35-23 after a TJ Bamba steal led to Kymany Houinsou’s breakaway dunk at the 2:36 mark.

UCLA closed the half on a 9-2 to cut the deficit to 37-32 going into the break. That was instrumental in paving the way for the second-half comeback.

Starting five

PG Tyger Campbell: 16 pts on 5/15 shooting (2/3 3-ptrs), 2 rebs, 2 asst, 2 stls

G David Singleton: 14 pts on 4/7 shooting (2/4 3-ptrs), 2 rebs, 1 stl, 1 blk

G Jaylen Clark: 8 pts on 3/12 shooting (0/2 3-ptrs), 6 rebs, 2 assts, 3 stls

G/F Jaime Jaquez Jr.: 20 pts on 5/14 shooting (0/1 3-ptrs), 8 rebs, 1 stl, 1 blk

F/C Adem Bona: 7 pts on 3/6 shooting, 7 rebs, 3 stls, 2 blks

Bench

F/C Kenneth Nwuba: No stats

F Mac Etienne: 0 pts on 0/2 shooting

G Dylan Andrews: 1 reb

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

G Amari Bailey: DNP (left foot discomfort, day-to-day)

G/F Abramo Canka: DNP (coach’s decision)

G Russell Stong: DNP (coach’s decision)

F Evan Manjikian: DNP (coach’s decision)

F Logan Cremonesi: DNP (coach’s decision)

G Jack Seidler: DNP (coach’s decision)