No. 7 UCLA’s balanced scoring, led by 15 points each from Jules Bernard and Johnny Juzang, and the Bruins’ defense were too much for No. 3 Arizona in a 75-59 victory Tuesday night at Los Angeles.
The Bruins (14-2, 6-1 Pac-12) also got 12 points from Cody Riley and 10 from Jaime Jaquez Jr.
They shot 50 percent from the field, including 8 of 17 from 3-point range.
Arizona (16-2, 6-1) shot 30.7 percent from the field and 7 of 28 from beyond the arc.
The Wildcats’ starting point guard, Kerr Kriisa, missed all 12 of his field-goal attempts, nine of them from 3-point range, and finished scoreless.
Bennedict Mathurin scored 16 points but shot only 5 of 22 from the field. He finished with 10 rebounds to help the Wildcats win the rebounding battle 49-34.
Arizona entered the game second in the nation averaging 88.7 points per game.
The Bruins tallied eight blocked shots and seven steals.
UCLA pulled away to a 40-29 halftime lead after Arizona started the game with a torrid shooting performance.
The Wildcats and Bruins combined to make 13 of their first 16 shots from the field, including converting their first six 3-pointers.
UCLA led 17-16 with fewer than 5 minutes into the game.
The Bruins took advantage of Arizona missing nine straight shots from the field to take a 24-16 lead with 10:10 left before halftime.
UCLA built its lead to 40-25 on Bernard’s jumper with 1:25 remaining, before Arizona closed the half with a Christian Koloko dunk and Pelle Larsson layup.
Juzang made all three of his 3-point attempts in the first half and had 11 points. Tyger Campbell had nine points at the break, including making his lone 3-point try and going 4 of 6 from the field.
After Arizona cut the lead to 61-53 with 7:43 remaining, UCLA scored eight unanswered points, including 3-pointers by David Singleton and Bernard to pull away for good.
–Field Level Media
