Two Big Ten teams trending in the right direction meet when UCLA faces Indiana on Saturday at Los Angeles.
Indiana (14-7, 5-5 Big Ten) is coming off an impressive 72-67 win over No. 12 Purdue on Tuesday, while UCLA (15-6, 7-3) has won three straight games and five of its last six.
Tyler Bilodeau scored 18 points and Eric Dailey Jr. added 14 points and a career-high-tying 11 rebounds in UCLA’s 73-57 road win over Oregon on Wednesday.
The Bruins turned in another strong defensive performance against the Ducks, who were limited to 35.6% shooting from the field and 28.1% from 3-point range. UCLA has not allowed more than 67 points during its winning streak.
Bruins coach Mick Cronin is monitoring the status of second-leading scorer Skyy Clark (13.5 ppg), who has missed the last seven games with a left hamstring injury.
Clark’s absence has placed a greater scoring burden on guard Donovan Dent, who scored 15 points against Oregon and is third on the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game. Cronin would like to see Dent be even more assertive moving forward.
“You can’t be a reluctant shooter in this game. You can’t,” Cronin said. “You gotta believe in yourself. We’re gonna go rebound it. When you get to 15 feet, 12 feet, jump up and shoot it. You can’t worry about a miss.”
UCLA will need another stellar defensive effort against Indiana, which has won two straight following a four-game losing streak.
Lamar Wilkerson led the Hoosiers with 19 points in the win over Purdue. Nick Dorn added 18 and Tucker DeVries had 10 rebounds to help give Indiana its first ranked win of the season.
Dorn made four 3-pointers against Purdue and is shooting 44.9% (22 of 49) from 3-point range in Big Ten play.
“He’s finding his spots where he fits in our offense. And our guys know where he is, too, so he’s gotten very comfortable,” Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. “As you can see, he’s not afraid. He’ll let them go, and that’s another great option for us to continue to utilize, and even grow, into finding more ways to get him free.”
–Field Level Media
