The UCLA men's basketball team used a 24-2 scoring run midway through the second half to outlast Lafayette, 68-50, in a nonconference game Friday night at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA (2-0) trailed Lafayette 45-41 with 13:17 to play before holding Lafayette (0-2) scoreless over the next 11-plus minutes.

Sophomore Dylan Andrews and freshman Sebastian Mack scored a team-leading 18 points each for UCLA. Junior Lazar Stefanovic finished with 11 points, four rebounds and four steals.

Lafayette senior Eric Sondberg scored 11 points and senior Kyle Jenkins chipped in 10.

UCLA, which trailed Lafayette at halftime, 33-30, shot just 34.6% from the field in the first half. However, the Bruins’ strong second-half run and stingy defense resulted in Lafayette shooting 24% after halftime (6 for 25).

"I knew we should have probably started small and just switched everything," Bruins head coach Mick Cronin said. "But I didn't think we'd get anything out of that. Now you're going to say you're absolutely nuts – you could have lost. Maybe I am. I'm sure there's a lot of people that would agree with you, that I'm crazy. But I just thought we needed to try to be able to defend them with a bigger lineup. We're not going to play many teams where the five spends all his time at the three-point line. I just thought we needed to try it."

Trailing 45-41, UCLA took advantage of a post-move basket from Kenneth Nwuba at the 12:12 mark and a pull-up jumper from Stefanovic with 11:37 to go, tying the game at 45-45.

UCLA secured its first lead of the game on a pair of free throws from Mack at the 10:54 mark in the second half.

The Bruins continued their scoring run with two more free throws from Mack, followed one minute later by a 3-pointer from Andrews. Three minutes later, Mack nailed a pull-up jumper to propel the Bruins ahead, 54-45, with 6:37 to play.

UCLA's second-half cushion swelled to as many as 21 points in the game's final minute. Bruins freshman guard Ilane Fibleuil capitalized with an old-fashioned 3-point play on a fastbreak to give UCLA a 68-47 lead.

"They were going under and just giving us a shot," Cronin said. "And we were taking the bait, and we weren't getting the ball to the second side. It's a growth process with this team. We were just taking the bait. I know we were open, but their coaching staff – it was a smart move – they said we are just going to give that up, so they're going to take open jump shots. But they're not going to get a rebound because they're not going to move us. So we're going to expend no energy defensively. They're going to throw one or two passes, we're going to go under and let them shoot. We're going to spend all of our energy back-cutting, passing, wheeling, and they're spending all their energy trying to break us down on the offensive end.

“But defense, let's just go back, pack it in, go under, let them shoot and box out. You get no rebounds when you don't move the ball."

The Bruins will close their season-opening three-game homestand against Long Island next Wednesday. Tip-off at Pauley Pavilion is set for 7 p.m. and will be televised by the Pac-12 Network.