This post was updated Feb. 22 at 12:18 a.m.
Twice the Sun Devils inched back to bring the game to within one possession late in the second half.
Twice David Singleton answered with a 3-pointer.
“Guys started looking around, like, ‘Who’s going to score?’” coach Mick Cronin said. “We’ve got to play, so finally David hit a big shot.”
Behind the senior guard’s two timely 3-pointers to quell a pair of comeback attempts, No. 12 UCLA men’s basketball (20-5, 12-4 Pac-12) defeated Arizona State (10-16, 6-10) by a score of 66-52 at Pauley Pavilion on Monday night.
Three consecutive Bruin turnovers and three second-chance Sun Devil jumpers evaporated the once 17-point UCLA lead to two midway through the final frame as the visiting team churned out a 9-0 run – the largest spurt of the game.
Singleton responded with a 3-pointer on the other end to stop the five-minute drought, and after another pair of Arizona State scores brought the margin to 46-45, the senior guard drilled one more shot from deep to stifle the comeback.
His pair of makes were his only points of the night, to tie for the team lead in 3-pointers, as junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. also knocked down two triples. Singleton’s final 3-pointer sparked a 12-2 Bruin run to reclaim the lead the blue and gold had built heading into the locker room.
In the first half, a second-chance dunk from redshirt senior center Myles Johnson gave UCLA its largest lead of the game at 17 points, moments after a swipe and a score from sophomore guard Jaylen Clark that brought Pauley Pavilion to a roar.
“Making plays like that, when the arena gets loud, it just lifts the whole team,” Clark said. “I try and be as animated as possible after making a crazy play, just to get everyone going and the crowd into it.”
The two players combined for a seven-point run in the first half, with Clark pacing the Bruins with 11 points and six rebounds. Johnson had five boards after 20 minutes.
UCLA’s scoring barrage came late in the opening period, as neither team mustered a basket until senior guard Jules Bernard sank a pair of free throws after nearly three minutes of play. The blue and gold’s first field goal of the contest didn’t come for another minute as five more empty possessions combined from both teams elapsed before junior guard Johnny Juzang dropped in a layup.
The game opened with eight consecutive misses in the second contest of the season between the two teams – in contrast to the 171 total points scored between the two programs in their first meeting in Tempe on Feb. 5.
Both teams’ shooting percentages regressed to the mean by the end of the contest as both the Bruins and Sun Devils finished the game at a near 40% clip. Jaquez said UCLA entered the game against Arizona State with a sense of urgency following the triple-overtime defeat to kick off the season series.
“We know we let it slip away when we were down in Tempe,” Jaquez said. “We had to make sure, when we were at home, that nobody comes in here and gets a W.”
After scoring five points or fewer in his last three matchups, Jaquez finished Monday night’s victory with 13 points and 10 rebounds – his fourth double-double of the season.
The junior came alive in the second half en route to a game-high eight points in the period. With under five minutes remaining in the two-possession contest, Jaquez was fouled shooting a 3 and sank all three free throws before he ballooned the lead back to double-digits with another pair of makes at the line.
Cronin said Jaquez’s performance, despite him dealing with injuries in both ankles, showed glimpses of the junior’s potential.
“He’s a gamer of all gamers,” Cronin said. “It’s just great to see him get in a little bit of a flow, because he’s clearly, probably playing at 60% to 70% of who he is.”
Without redshirt junior guard Tyger Campbell in the lineup for the second time in three games, Bernard and Clark delivered 32 total points from the backcourt. Clark hauled in nine rebounds, all on the defensive end, while Bernard converted all seven of his free throws.
A fast break dunk from Clark with 30 seconds remaining punctuated the game and closed out the undefeated career week from the sophomore guard and the Bruins.
