UCLA is abruptly one of the most well liked groups within the NCAA Tournament after backing into it with 4 straight losses.
Johnny Juzang is abruptly one of its hottest gamers, too.
After serving to the No. 11 seed Bruins rally previous Michigan State within the First Four, Juzang poured in 27 factors in opposition to sixth-seeded BYU on Saturday night time, carrying his crew to a 73-62 victory and the second spherical of the East Region.
“This is what we live for. This is the height of college basketball,” Juzang mentioned, “and playing for the Bruins — I’m from Los Angeles. Playing with a lot of guys I’ve known, we’re all brothers here. So putting on this jersey with my brothers, coming out, playing for the home team — I’m just trying to make everybody on the team proud.”
Juzang did not do it alone.
Jules Bernard scored 16 factors, most of them as BYU tried to rally within the second half, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 13 because the Bruins superior to play No. 14 seed Abilene Christian — which upset third-seeded Texas about half-hour after UCLA had wrapped up its personal win — on Monday night time for a spot within the Sweet 16.
“I owe (assistant coach) Darren Savino lunch. He’s scouting Abilene Christian and he told me they would win,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin mentioned. “Abilene Christian is really, really good. That’s all I can say.”
Still, the Bruins needs to be favored in a sport for the primary time in fairly some time.
“Look,” Cronin said, “we had some tough times late in the year, but playing good teams, it can either kill you or it makes you better. You’re finding out that the Pac-12 not being ranked all year was an absolute joke.”
Alex Barcello led the Cougars (20-7) with 20 factors. Brandon Averette added 15 factors and Matt Haarms completed with 11 factors and 10 boards as BYU — which fell to Gonzaga for the third time this season within the Mountain West finals — suffered back-to-back defeats for the primary time in 60 video games.
“The game teaches you all the time how you need to get better. There’s a number of things we can take from this game to get better,” BYU coach Mark Pope mentioned. “But I’m not there right now. It’s a hard locker room right now.”
UCLA’s late-season swoon pressured it into an unenviable First Four sport in opposition to Michigan State, and it seemed as if a season that started with promise would finish there with a whimper. Instead, the Bruins leaned on Juzang to rally them to a win in additional time, they usually carried that confidence and momentum into Saturday night time.
Juzang, who had tweaked his ankle late in opposition to the Spartans, adopted up his 23-point efficiency in West Lafayette by going 8 of 11 from the ground and scoring 19 first-half factors. Bernard and Jaquez additionally constructed on their huge video games from Thursday night time, at one level the trio serving to UCLA hit discipline targets on seven consecutive journeys down the ground.
That despatched UCLA into halftime with a 38-27 lead over the shell-shocked Cougars.
Barcello tried to shake them out of their malaise.
One of the nation’s high 3-point shooters hit one early within the second half. Then, Barcello discovered area contained in the Bruins’ man-to-man protection for a pair simple jumpers. It was all half of a 10-0 run that made it 43-39 with 14 minutes to go.
“They kept fighting. They kept trying to chip away,” Pope mentioned. “That’s this locker room. It’s what they’ve been all year.”
It wasn’t sufficient, although. Not when Juzang began getting some assist from his crew.
Bernard answered BYU’s cost with a jumper and a 3-pointer minutes aside, Jaquez scored on a nifty put-back and David Singleton scored his solely two buckets of the sport. The Bruins rapidly pushed the lead again out to 56-45 with lower than 10 minutes to go, then spent the remaining of the sport answering each salvo from the Cougars with one of their very own.
“They caused us all kinds of problems. They played terrific,” Pope mentioned. “UCLA can be so meticulous and demonstrative with their pace of play, so it makes it hard to claw back in. And you know, it’s a game. It’s March. It happens.”
BIG PICTURE
UCLA dedicated solely 4 turnovers, two in every half, permitting Cronin’s crew to play the plodding fashion it prefers. That saved the Cougars from entering into transition, they usually had been unable to rating successfully out of half-court units.
BYU repeatedly goes 10 deep and had outscored opponents in 23 of 26 video games off the bench. But it received little assist Saturday night time, when the Cougars’ depth ought to have come in useful in opposition to a crew that had gone to OT two days earlier.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will play the upstart Wildcats on Monday night time of their third sport in 5 days.
