Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a double-double and Tyger Campbell scored 21 points as No. 4 UCLA furthered its case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with an 82-73 victory over No. 8 Arizona on Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Jaquez had 22 points and 10 rebounds as the Bruins (27-4, 18-2 Pac-12) ended the regular season with a four-game lead in the Pac-12 standings and will enter the Pac-12 tournament on a 10-game winning streak. The Wildcats (25-6, 14-6), who will be the No. 2 seed in the league tourney, got 24 points and 10 rebounds from Azuolas Tubelis.
The Bruins, who finished 17-0 at Pauley Pavilion this season, erased an 11-point first-half deficit on Senior Night, led by three points at halftime and established control by scoring the first eight points of the second half to take a 48-37 lead.
The Wildcats cut the lead to six on three occasions, including at 53-47, but UCLA surged to a 68-54 advantage on Jaquez’s fast-break dunk with 5:08 to go. Arizona was clinging to hope when it climbed within 74-67 on a 3-pointer by Kylan Boswell with 1:13 left, but UCLA closed out the game by making 8 of 8 free throws.
The victory might have been costly, however. UCLA guard Jaylen Clark went to the locker room with 17:53 left with an undisclosed injury, later returning to the bench using crutches and wearing a boot on his right foot. Bruins coach Mick Cronin said Clark is scheduled to have an MRI on Sunday.
David Singleton scored 17 points for UCLA and made 5 of 9 3-point attempts as the Bruins split the season series with Arizona. Clark scored 11 points in 15 minutes.
Arizona sprinted to a double-digit lead in less than six minutes, and Tubelis scored 14 of Arizona’s first 21 points. UCLA made only 1 of 12 shots from 3-point range in the first 10 minutes, but Clark helped bring the Bruins back, scoring nine points in a 17-2 run that gave them a 29-23 lead with 5:07 to go in the half.
Arizona went into the half down 40-37 after the Wildcats’ Cedric Henderson Jr. banked in a driving jumper from the lane in the final second.
–Field Level Media
