No. 5 Arizona overwhelms UCLA in last regular-season game as Pac-12 rivals

The final Pac-12 regular-season installment of the storied UCLA-Arizona rivalry produced anything but the typical classic between the programs Thursday night.

For the Bruins' part, it was downright forgettable, hearing resounding "U of A" chants throughout the contest from the sprinkle of red in the mostly blue-and-white-clad stands at Pauley Pavilion.

The fifth-ranked Wildcats used a late first-half push to spark an 88-65 runaway victory, clinch the Pac-12 regular-season title and extend UCLA's losing streak to five games.

Bruins head coach Mick Cronin could only state the obvious, even displaying some mind-reading with reporters after the game.

“I feel like you, you don’t even know what to ask, right? I know you don’t. Look, they’re just better than us,” Cronin said.

The Bruins (14-16, 9-10 Pac-12) shot just 39% (23 of 59) and trailed by as many as 28 late in the game.

First-place Arizona (24-6, 15-4 Pac-12) connected on 51.9% (28 of 54) of its shots, including 9 of 23 3-pointers. Freshman KJ Lewis scored 18 points off the bench to pace five double-digit scorers.

“The truth of it is, for us, we’ve got no chance at matching their firepower,” Cronin said.

The Wildcats swept the final regular-season series and wrapped up the program's 30th conference championship.

Dating back to the 1944-45 season, Arizona or UCLA have won at least a share of 49 regular-season conference titles — including 13 consecutive seasons from 1985-86 to 1997-98. The Bruins won their 32nd regular-season league title last season.

After battling well past the midway point of the first half, the Bruins ran into an offensive cold spell and never recovered.

An errant Adem Bona jump hook shot from well outside the paint ignited the Wildcats' offense the other way. Kylan Boswell's 3-pointer gave Arizona a 27-17 lead and quickly forced a UCLA timeout at the 6:03 mark.

The Bruins were never able to settle into a rhythm the rest of the way, getting outscored 17-6 over the final 5 minutes, 24 seconds. UCLA trailed 44-27 at the half, with just six points from the rest of the team to support Dylan Andrews and Bona's scoring production over the first 20 minutes.

Still leading 47-32, Arizona then went on a 12-1 run to push the advantage to 59-33 inside the first five minutes of the second half. UCLA never made a serious push.

Andrews had the most consistent performance from start to finish, while fellow Bruins guard Lazar Stefanovic didn't contribute until scoring all 20 of his team-high points after halftime.

Andrews led the team with 11 points at the break and finished with 18 on 7-of-17 shooting. The sophomore, however, was held without an assist and committed three turnovers.

On paper, the sophomore's five blocks and two steals are worthy of the nod. His counterpart, Oumar Ballo, had a streak of nine consecutive double-doubles snapped and he finished with just nine points and three rebounds.

In reality, though, Arizona turned the ball over just nine times and had little resistance past the first 10 minutes of the contest.

Cronin did everything but foreshadow it earlier in the week, as the Wildcats' offensive firepower was too much to handle.

In addition, after Ballo picked up a foul inside the game's first minute, UCLA attempted — but failed repeatedly — to draw a quick second until the final two minutes of the first half. The Bruins' offense had little variation outside of Bona banging inside with Ballo, but often finding himself out of his range and outside the paint at times.

The Bruins also struggled to keep from fouling. The Wildcats were 23 of 30 from the free-throw line compared to UCLA's 13 of 18.