While defense is what carries the UCLA men’s basketball team on most nights, its shooting touch came through against host Utah on Thursday night.

Forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 23 points and point guard Tyger Campbell added 18 as the seniors guided the fourth-ranked Bruins to a 78-71 victory over the Utes.

The Bruins (24-4, 15-2 Pac-12 Conference), who shot 50.8% from the field, held off a furious second-half rally. Jaquez Jr. has scored 20 or more points in four consecutive games.

The Utes (17-12, 10-8 Pac-12) were paced by Mike Saunders Jr.’s game-high 25 points, including 19 in the second half.

UCLA, which now leads idle Arizona by two full games for first place in the standings, can clinch at least a share of the Pac-12 regular-season title Sunday at Colorado.

Utah overcame a 3-of-14 start to pull within 16-14 past the midway point of the opening half.

UCLA then went on a 10-0 run bookended by a pair of Campbell 3-pointers to extend the lead to 12 points.

The Utes went nearly four full minutes between made field goals in the stretch.

Utah briefly cut into the double-digit lead before Dylan Andrews’ 3 pushed the UCLA lead back up to 32-22 at the 3:55 mark.

The Bruins, who made 19 of 31 shots in the half, maintained the cushion to take a 43-31 lead into the break.

Utah missed all 10 of its first-half 3-pointers and trailed by as many as 16 early in the second half.

The Utes made five of their first six from beyond the arc after halftime and cut the deficit to 62-59 on Marco Anthony’s driving layup with 5:11 to play.

Jaquez Jr., as he has done of late, then carried the Bruins out of the second-half rut with an assist and a pair of baskets to bump the lead up to 68-62.

Campbell and Jaquez Jr. tacked on back-to-back 3-pointers to restore the double-digit advantage with 1:03 left and avoid the collapse.

Among the struggles UCLA has had on the offensive end, Campbell’s inconsistent shooting has led to just a 38% showing entering the contest.

The 5-foot-11 guard came out firing against the Utes and finished 6 of 12 from the field — including 3 of 4 from long distance.

Campbell was also his usual self directing the action, collecting five assists to just one turnover.

Jaquez Jr. has unquestionably carried the load for the Bruins, and was most important in holding off the Utes’ late push, but Campbell’s offense gives UCLA that added dimension it has been missing for stretches this season. This performance could serve as the starting point with the postseason around the corner.

Jaylen Clark and Adem Bona had their usual moments, but there wasn’t a particularly spectacular individual performance that stood above the rest.

Clark had a pair of steals and Bona had a pair of blocks.

It wasn’t the most disruptive collective performance, either, as Utah turned the ball over 12 times — though eight came in the second half.

During the key first-half run, sandwiched between the two Campbell 3-pointers was a pair of Bona dunks — including an alley-oop on a feed from Amari Bailey at the 8:44 mark.

It was in transition where the Bruins found early separation. UCLA owned a 15-6 edge in fastbreak points.

Andrews was tremendous early off the bench, scoring nine of his 10 points in the first half. The freshman made all four of his shots before halftime.

As a team, the Bruins were 8 of 15 on 3-pointers.

Starting five

PG Tyger Campbell: 18 pts on 6/12 shooting (3/4 3-ptrs), 2 rebs, 5 asst, 2 stls

G Amari Bailey: 7 pts on 3/9 shooting (1/3 3-ptrs), 1 reb, 2 asst

G Jaylen Clark: 9 pts on 4/8 shooting (0/1 3-ptrs), 3 rebs, 5 asst, 2 stls

G/F Jaime Jaquez Jr.: 23 pts on 10-15 shooting (2/2 3-ptrs), 8 rebs, 3 asst, 1 stl

F/C Adem Bona: 6 pts on 3/5 shooting, 7 rebs, 2 blks

Bench

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

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

G Dylan Andrews: 10 pts on 4/7 shooting (1/1 3-ptrs), 2 rebs, 1 asst

F/C Kenneth Nwuba: No stats

F Mac Etienne: 2 pts on 1/1 shooting, 1 reb

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

G Russell Stong: DNP (coach’s decision)

F Logan Cremonesi: DNP (coach’s decision)

G Jack Seidler: DNP (coach’s decision)

F Evan Manjikian: DNP (inactive, right arm)