PHILADELPHIA — Eric Dailey Jr. tied his season high with 20 points, Xavier Booker added 15 points and eight rebounds and seventh-seeded UCLA nudged past 10th-seeded UCF 75-71 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Booker added four blocks and two 3-pointers in a clutch performance. The center was in the starting lineup in place of leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau (knee sprain), who was ruled out shortly before tipoff.
Trent Perry also scored 15 and Donovan Dent had 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals for the Bruins (24-11), who will face No. 2 seed UConn in the second round of the East Region on Sunday. The Huskies defeated No. 15 seed Furman 82-71 on Friday.
Jordan Burks canned six 3-pointers and had 22 points while Riley Kugel scored 13 for UCF (21-12), but the Knights went a meager 5-for-16 at the foul line and committed 17 turnovers that led to 19 UCLA points.
UCF also managed just 15-of-40 shooting (37.5%) from inside the arc but kept the second half interesting with eight threes.
Following a fastbreak jumper by Booker that made it 46-32 Bruins, the Knights answered with an 11-0 burst fueled by two 3-pointers from Burks and another from Devan Cambridge with 14 minutes to play.
But UCF went cold –failing to convert field goal for the next 6:45 — as Perry, Booker and Dent rebuilt the double-digit advantage.
Burks’ corner 3-pointer brought UCF within 63-56, but Booker responded with a three-point play with 2:01 remaining. Jamichael Stillwell made two layups to get the Knights within six.
Along the way, UCLA’s Skyy Clark lost part of a tooth in a tie-up on the floor with Themus Fulks in the waning minutes. Clark stayed in the game and finished with eight points.
“He looked so good in the locker room,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said of Clark. “Looks like a boxer.”
“Got a little lisp too,” Perry added.
Clark wrestled a rebound away from Fulks with 16 seconds left and began to dribble away — only to lose it out of bounds. UCF got Burks open in the left corner for his sixth 3-pointer to cut it to 72-69, but UCLA salted it away at the line.
“They got back in the game by going small and switching everything,” Cronin said of the Knights. “We didn’t throw it to Xavier inside against the switch at the last six minutes of the half. We talked about doing it, and he was able to get four interior baskets. We threw it to him. We need that. He’s an offensive player.”
The Bruins started the game 0-for-7 from the field, only to make their next eight shots, ignited by three in a row from Dailey. The highlight of the half was a transition alley-oop dunk from Dent to Dailey.
Soon after, UCF’s John Bol tipped a missed 3-pointer into his own bucket, giving UCLA its largest lead at 35-21. But Cambridge and Carmelo Pacheco sank triples to cut that down to eight points by halftime.
Fulks and Jamichael Stillwell scored 10 points each for UCF, and Stillwell added a game-high 13 rebounds.
UCF outrebounded UCLA 53-41 but could not overcome its poor free-throw shooting.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
