The Bruins built a 13-point second-half lead without having taken a single free throw.
The lead disappeared in a matter of minutes, but their free-throw shooting saved the day.
UCLA men’s basketball (10-9, 3-3 Pac-12) squeezed by Oregon State (12-7, 2-5) 62-58 on the road Thursday night, hitting its final nine free throws en route to victory in Corvallis, Oregon. The Bruins’ 40.8% field goal percentage was their third-lowest mark in a victory this year, but the 13 steals UCLA picked up were a season-high.
Eight of those steals came in the opening half, and the Bruins went into the break up 27-24. After trading buckets in the opening minute-plus of the second half, UCLA strung together a 10-0 run thanks to three field goals by freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Oregon State went on an 18-4 run over the course of 7:31 to turn what was once a 13-point UCLA lead into a 1-point lead of its own.
But after not earning a trip to the charity stripe for the first 30 minutes of the game, it was the Bruins’ free-throw shooting that kept them alive down the stretch.
UCLA hit just three field goals in the final 15 minutes of the game, but it managed to pick up 16 points from the free-throw line, seven of which came from junior guard Chris Smith.
Smith picked up his fourth foul of the game with 10 minutes left to play, but coach Mick Cronin elected to keep him on the court for the majority of the final five minutes. Smith ended up scoring all but 2 of his second-half points from the line, shooting 7-of-9 on free throws in the game.
Smith fouled out with 11 seconds to play, but he had already helped the Bruins secure a one-possession lead. The free throws the Beavers took as a result of Smith’s foul helped them cut the Bruins’ lead to one, and it was redshirt sophomore forward Jalen Hill who became the next man up at the line.
Hill – who was scoreless prior to the final 10 seconds – hit both free throws to put the Bruins back up by three, and his second straight 2-of-2 trip to the line with five seconds left helped UCLA put the game away. Hill led the team with five rebounds, and his four free throws were his only points of the night after starting the game 0-of-3 from the field.
The Bruins entered Thursday as 227th-best free-throw shooting team in the country, but behind Smith, Hill and sophomore guard Jules Bernard’s combined 14-of-17 clip from the line in the second half, they pulled out the victory.
UCLA will next take the court in Eugene, Oregon to take on Oregon on Sunday at 2 p.m.
