UCLA beats Gonzaga in a nail-biter at Intuit Dome
No crazy buzzer-beater. No last-minute miracle.
After so much heartache over so many years, UCLA finally shook off its Gonzaga jinx under coach Mick Cronin on Saturday afternoon.
It looked like the Bruins might be in store for more misfortune when Sebastian Mack fouled Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard on a driving layup with 8.1 seconds left, sending Nembhard to the line for the free throw that could tie the score.
But the basketball gods finally smiled upon the Bruins.
Nembhard missed the free throw and UCLA’s Skyy Clark chased down the rebound before getting fouled. He made both free throws to give the No. 22 Bruins a breathless 65-62 victory over the No. 14 Bulldogs in the West Coast Hoops Showdown at the Intuit Dome.
Another wild finish for Gonzaga was not in store after Nembhard’s heave beyond halfcourt was well off the mark seconds before the buzzer.
It was the first victory over Gonzaga for Cronin at UCLA after having dropped his first four meetings, including a pair of heartbreakers on game-winning shots in the NCAA tournament.
A heavily pro-Bruins crowd of 12,272 cheered the team on its way off the court after it shook off its 16-point collapse against North Carolina from last weekend.
“We knew we let a big one slip away in New York and we’re still feeling that,” said Clark, who was strong across the board with 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, “but we’ve got to learn from it and move on, so we just came into this game hungry, we did not want to lose.”
After barely playing in the second half against the Tar Heels because he absorbed a shot to the face, UCLA forward Eric Dailey Jr. was fitted with a mask and scored 18 points to lead four players in double figures for the Bruins (11-2).
Gonzaga (9-4) had multiple chances to forge another late win. Bulldogs guard Dusty Stromer rose for a three-pointer that could have given his team the lead with 17 seconds left, but the shot was off the mark and Clark grabbed the rebound before getting fouled.
Clark got both of his free throws to roll in, using a new shooting technique to provide the Bruins with a 63-60 lead after he had missed the front end of two one-and-one situations in the second half against North Carolina.
“He’s been teaching us to hit the front of the rim when you’re shooting a free throw,” Clark said of Cronin, “so I was really trying to focus on that. He said 95% of those shots go in.”
Even with a three-point lead, UCLA was the team that needed a little luck this time given the breakdown in its strategy. Cronin said the plan was to foul Gonzaga if they took their time to try and get a three-pointer or let them lay it in if they went for a quick basket.
They did neither when Mack hacked Nembhard on his layup, sending a player who entered the game making 86.7% of his free throws to the line.
“Bas knows he made a mistake,” Cronin said. “It happens, and I can coach him about it and talk to him about it.”
The previous moments had been a redemption story for Mack. After having missed two free throws, he made a floater in which he was fouled and sank the free throw to give the Bruins a 61-60 lead with 33 seconds left.
Kobe Johnson contributed all four of his three-pointers in the second half for UCLA, which shot 12 of 24 from long range. That helped the Bruins prevail on a day in which Gonzaga’s Graham Ike met little resistance while scoring 24 points on 11-for-16 shooting.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs unleashed the sort of harassing defense normally associated with the Bruins, making every UCLA possession a slog. With point guard Dylan Andrews’ slump deepening, the Bruins often struggled to produce good shots — or, in a few cases, any shot while committing a shot-clock violation.
Andrews, who went scoreless with one assist, was benched down the stretch in favor of Mack, who made the play his team needed.
The halftime score — UCLA 27, Gonzaga 25 — looked like a misprint given the Bruins shot only 29% and committed nine turnovers. The advantage came thanks mostly to UCLA making five of 12 three-pointers (compared to Gonzaga’s two of 11), forcing the Bulldogs into 11 turnovers and grabbing two more rebounds than their counterparts.
The Bruins looked like they were headed to a much larger cushion after Clark used a crossover move to free himself for a jumper that capped an 11-0 run for his team, giving UCLA a 24-13 lead.
Tensions momentarily rose late in the first half when Gonzaga guard Khalif Battle was assessed a flagrant-2 foul and ejected for clobbering Dailey, the contact prompting Cronin to shed his suit jacket before conversing with officials about the play.
The loss of their third-leading scorer seemed to galvanize the Bulldogs the rest of the first half. They went on to hold UCLA scoreless for more than four minutes while rolling off a 9-0 push that wiped out most of the Bruins’ big lead.
UCLA played without center William Kyle III, who was sidelined by an unspecified medical issue, according to a team spokesperson.
In the end, the Bruins had just enough to break through against the team that had tormented them so much.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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