It had been nearly 23 full years since UCLA’s men’s basketball team went a full game without making a 3-point shot. Not only was that streak in jeopardy at the midway point of the second half Saturday against Colorado, but so, too, was the No. 7-ranked Bruins’ 12-game winning streak.

After 15 consecutive misses beyond the arc, UCLA junior guard Jaylen Clark changed all of that — it just took a bit longer to fall through the net for the 8,106 fans in attendance to exhale and roar.

Clark’s rim-rattling 3-pointer was the big momentum swing in the midst of a furious 24-3 run — including 17 consecutive points to start, helping the Bruins overcome a nine-point second-half deficit and avoid the upset in a 68-54 win over the Buffaloes at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA (16-2, 7-0 Pac-12) got a tremendous all-around effort and double-double from senior forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who finished with a game-high 23 points to go with 13 rebounds, five blocks, four steals and two assists over 38 minutes. Clark added 18 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Bruins, who extended their win streak to 13 games despite shooting just 38.1% from the field.

UCLA made the shots down the stretch, however, making 12 of its last 18 attempts.

"Eventually the ball is going to go in. I told them at halftime, I’d rather the ball goes in in the second half," Bruins head coach Mick Cronin said. "They didn’t really go in until the last 10 minutes. But if you’re going to have a big 10 minutes where the ball goes in, you want the last 10."

Colorado (11-8, 3-5 Pac-12) received 17 points from top scorer KJ Simpson, who was limited to just six in the second half and shot 5 of 15 for the game. After making 3 of 8 3-pointers in the first half, the Buffaloes were just 1 of 6 the rest of the way.

After wrapping up the three-game homestand, the Bruins will now head back on the road next week for a pair of games in the desert. UCLA will face second-place Arizona State on Thursday before Saturday’s contest against Arizona, which will drop out of the top 10 after a stunning 19-point loss at Oregon earlier in the day.

Trailing 16-13 in the first half, Colorado went on a 16-4 run to take its largest lead of the contest with 2:37 remaining until the break. The Bruins chipped away to pull within 31-28 at the half.

UCLA couldn’t buy a bucket after the break, missing 14 consecutive shots at one point until Jaquez Jr.’s turnaround in the post to pull the struggling Bruins within 39-33 with 12:19 to play.

At the midway point of the second half, Adem Bona completed a traditional three-point play but Colorado still led 44-38.

Two Bona free throws and a block from the freshman on the other end sparked a wild sequence ending in Clark’s much-needed 3-pointer. UCLA had missed its first 15 attempts beyond the arc, with Clark extending the program’s streak to 771 games with at least one made 3-pointer going back to February of 2000.

Just before the shot, Clark went into “eff it” mode.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I wasn’t even counting,” Clark said of the drought. “It was mad loud and everybody was jumping and screaming. … I didn’t know we hadn’t hit one. I don’t count it.”

A pair of David Singleton free throws then put the Bruins ahead 45-44 — their first lead since the 9:12 mark of the opening half — to put the home crowd into a frenzy with 8:12 to play.

Clark’s 3-point basket sparked a string of four consecutive makes from beyond the arc for UCLA in an instant turn of events. The Bruins finished 4 of 19 from long distance.

Colorado never recovered and UCLA escaped from being on the wrong end of a wild day in the Pac-12 Conference.

“As you guys see around college basketball, high-ranked teams are dropping like flies nowadays," Jaquez Jr. said. "Guys lose games, and you guys don’t think they’re going to lose – college basketball is really the greatest sport there is. We just harp on this defense all the time. Like coach said earlier, ‘One can play defense if you give yourself the chance.’ And that’s what we try to do every single night.”

For most of the 30 minutes, Jaquez Jr. was the offense.

UCLA had its struggles in the halfcourt offense and was just 6 of 13 on free throws in the first half. The Bruins would have been in much more trouble, if not for Jaquez Jr.’s production.

He finished 11 of 23 from the field, including a 3-pointer in the second-half flurry to extend the Bruins’ lead to 48-44 with 6:58 left.

Jaquez Jr. and Clark continued to wreak havoc, with the former also serving as a rim protector. Cronin said the duo combined for 27 of a season-high 55 deflections by the team.

Midway through the first half, the defense was the source of UCLA’s offense. Ten of the Bruins’ first 15 points were off Colorado turnovers, helping UCLA to the early two-point lead at that juncture.

Among the highlights during that stretch was a Clark steal in the passing lane that led to a transition bucket the other way.

What else but the sequence that started with Bona’s block and ended with Clark’s 3-pointer?

Despite getting outrebounded in the first half 23-17, including 11-8 on the offensive glass, the Bruins had a 7-1 edge in second-chance points at the break and finished 14-1 for the game. The UCLA defense on those extended Buffaloes possessions allowed them to chip away at the lead going into halftime.

That signature defense, Cronin said, makes winning games possible when the shots aren’t falling.

UCLA also won despite Colorado converting 20 of 23 free throws, with the Buffaloes getting to the line consistently in both halves.

For the game, the Bruins had a 25-6 edge in points off turnovers and outscored the Buffs 30-16 in the paint. Bona was a big reason why, overcoming early foul trouble to score all nine of his points in the second half and collecting three of the team’s 11 blocked shots.

Starting five

PG Tyger Campbell: 11 pts on 4/15 shooting (1/6 3-ptrs), 5 rebs, 3 asst, 2 stls

G David Singleton: 7 pts on 2/9 shooting (0/6 3-ptrs), 4 rebs, 3 stls, 1 blk

G Jaylen Clark: 18 pts on 5/10 shooting (2/4 3-ptrs), 8 rebs, 4 asst, 3 stls

G/F Jaime Jaquez Jr.: 23 pts on 11/23 shooting (1/2 3-ptrs), 13 rebs, 2 asst, 5 blks, 4 stls

F/C Adem Bona: 9 pts on 2/4 shooting, 5 rebs, 2 asst, 3 blk, 1 stl

Bench

G Dylan Andrews: 0 pts on 0/2 shooting (0/1 3-ptrs), 2 rebs, 1 stl

G Will McClendon: 1 stl

F Mac Etienne: 2 blks

G/F Abramo Canka: No stats

F/C Kenneth Nwuba: No stats

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

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)