Husky men open road trip with ninth consecutive loss to UCLA
LOS ANGELES — The Washington men’s basketball team knew what to expect from UCLA, which came into Sunday’s matchup embarrassed after a 46-point loss in its previous game just three days ago.
“That’s a proud team so they’re going to come out fighting,” UW coach Mike Hopkins said. “They’re a physical team, Always have been. So, we have to match that physicality.”
In short, the Huskies didn’t follow Hopkins’ instructions and lost their ninth straight game to the Bruins, a 73-61 defeat at Pauley Pavilion to start a three-game road trip.
This game paired teams with contrasting styles. UCLA began the day ranked first in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (63.9 points per game) while
Washington was second in the league in scoring at 81.7.
Washington needed to get into a shootout against the Bruins, who ranked last in the conference in scoring at 64.2 points per game.
However, the Huskies were held to their fewest points of the season — 20 below their scoring average.
Sahvir Wheeler led Washington (10-7, 2-4 in Pac-12) with a career-high tying 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting while Keion Brooks Jr. had 12 and Moses Wood 10.
The Huskies lost control early and couldn’t hold up against a punishing and physical Bruins defensive attack that kept everybody except Wheeler out of the lane and forced UW into 1-for-10 shooting on three-pointers in the first half.
It was a precipitous decline in perimeter production for Washington, which connected on a season-high 13 three-pointers in its last outing.
UCLA used a 21-4 run over 9½ minutes to turn its 7-3 deficit into a 24-11 lead with 5:55 left in the first half.
Washington’s 30-22 halftime deficit would have been much greater if not for Wheeler who scored the final four points before the break.
The 22 points on 8-for-25 shooting were the fewest in a half this season for UW, which tallied 26 in the first half at Colorado two weeks ago.
Wood scored five unanswered points early in the second half that cut Washington’s deficit to 32-27, but UCLA quickly pushed its lead back to double digits and the Huskies never seriously threatened the rest of the way.
Washington centers Braxton Meah and Wilhelm Breidenbach were unable to stop big man Adem Bona who led the Bruins with 22 points on 10-for-13 shooting. Lazar Stefanovic added 15 points and Sebastian Mack had 10 for UCLA, which improved to 7-10 and 2-4.
It was a disappointing start to a three-game road trip for the Huskies who will remain in California this week before Thursday’s game at California and Saturday’s contest against Stanford.