With one top player out and another in a funk, UCLA falters late in loss to Nebraska
LINCOLN, Neb. — With its best all-around player out and its point guard falling into a deeper funk, UCLA needed some step-up performances to beat Nebraska.
What did the Bruins get?
Sebastian Mack made three of 11 shots and committed four turnovers before fouling out.
Kobe Johnson and Lazar Stefanovic combined to make six of 18 shots.
The entire team made four of 28 three-pointers.
It was no wonder, then, that No. 15 UCLA faltered toward the end of a 66-58 loss to Nebraska on Saturday given it played the entire game without forward Eric Dailey Jr. and might as well have been without point guard Dylan Andrews given his continued struggles.
The UCLA men’s basketball team must adapt from playing in sleepy Pac-12 arenas to energized Big Ten gyms packed with rowdy fans this season.
At one point midway through the second half inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, having reentered the game while scoreless with three turnovers, Andrews almost immediately threw a pass out of bounds and got yanked again.
It wasn’t what the Bruins needed considering they were already missing Dailey, who was sidelined by lingering issues from the shot to the face he absorbed two weeks ago during a game against North Carolina.
“He’s not playing well,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said of the junior who has averaged 1.3 points, 1.3 assists and 2.3 turnovers while shooting 11.8% over his last three games.
Andrews went on to finish with two points and four turnovers in only 19 minutes, his final indignity coming when he had a shot swatted on a drive to the basket in the final minute.
The sold-out crowd delighted in every UCLA miscue while giving the Bruins (11-3 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) perhaps their first true taste of life on the road in the Big Ten after they won at a half-empty Matthew Knight Arena last month.
After pulling to within 61-58 with 24 seconds left and causing some audible unease in the crowd, UCLA’s comeback hopes were crushed when Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg made two free throws and Andrews had his shot rejected.
Forward Tyler Bilodeau’s 15 points weren’t nearly enough given that UCLA shot 38.6% from the field and was especially cold from long range against a team that packed its defense into the paint and dared the Bruins to beat them with three-pointers. They couldn’t.
They compounded their 14.3% shooting from beyond the arc by committing 15 turnovers against a team that doesn’t use pressure defense.
“Look,” Cronin said, “if you shoot the ball as poorly as we did, the only chance you have is to take care of the ball; you can’t give them 17 points off your turnovers, you’ve got no chance, you can’t overcome it, so it’s just math at the end of the day.”
Why were the Bruins having so much trouble running a clean offense?
“I just think we were trying to do too much,” Bilodeau said. “Probably need to just keep things simpler and make simple passes. They’re a good defensive team and they were rotating a lot from the baseline, so we were trying to keep everything in the middle. Probably should have executed that a little better.”
Guard Brice Williams scored 16 points to help the Cornhuskers (12-2, 2-1) notch their 20th consecutive home victory, tying the school record they had established twice previously.
Forward Berke Buyuktuncel, who transferred from UCLA to Nebraska during the offseason, scored four points and grabbed a team-leading nine rebounds against his old team, cracking up Stefanovic during an exchange before the game.
“He had a couple of jokes,” said Stefanovic, Buyuktuncel’s former roommate. “It was good to see him.”
Starting in place of Dailey, who had scored 18 points last weekend against Gonzaga and looked fine Saturday when he went through pregame warmups, Mack was on the attack as usual but did not provide enough of a lift with his nine points offset somewhat by his sloppiness with the ball. Stefanovic added 10 points off the bench and Skyy Clark had nine for the Bruins despite absorbing several shots to his shoulder.
Cronin said he did not have clearance from Dailey’s family to address his medical situation but was hopeful he could return against Michigan on Tuesday. That’s when the Bruins could also get back forward William Kyle III, who did not play against the Cornhuskers after undergoing an undisclosed medical procedure last week.
With his team down to nine scholarship players given that three others are redshirting, Cronin said he told guards Trent Perry and Dominick Harris they would get additional opportunities. They fumbled the chance, combining to miss all three shots and committing three turnovers in their 18 minutes.
“Guys have to step up,” Bilodeau said. “Injuries are part of the game, that’s going to happen, and we’ve still got to learn how to win with them.’
Even with so much going wrong, the Bruins were in position to win midway through the second half.
They were down by only four points when a corner three-pointer from Hoiberg, the son of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg, sparked an 8-0 run for the Cornhuskers that pushed them into a 50-38 lead with eight minutes left and essentially doomed the Bruins.
After using an early loss to New Mexico to forge the toughness and urgency needed to roll off nine consecutive wins, maybe this was another lesson for the Bruins.
“I think every road game in the Big Ten is going to be a tough environment,” Bilodeau said. “We’ve got to know going into the game that it’s going to be a war.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
