LAS VEGAS – Mick Cronin called this a chance to find out the truth about his team.
The early verdict: These kids are all right.
Maybe quite a bit better than all right.
Shorthanded and stuck in massive foul trouble practically the entire game, UCLA fought back with one gritty retort after another Monday night against an old nemesis in its season opener.
Freshman Joe Philon III buried one fearless 3-pointer. Xavier Booker nailed another. Freshman Nikola Kusturica threw a home-run pass that Eric Dailey Jr. converted into a vicious dunk in the final minute.
Add it all up and No. 5 UCLA held off an epic comeback during an 84-75 victory over No. 5 Arizona at T-Mobile Arena in the Hall of Fame Series.
With a lead that had once stood at 16 points early in the second half down to 3 with 42 seconds left, Kusturica hurled a long inbounds pass to Dailey for a breakaway dunk. Booker then blocked a shot, Kusturica was fouled and made two free throws and that was that.
UCLA (1-0) held on for the kind of quality nonconference win it lacked last season on the way to getting a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“Oh, huge,” Cronin said of the significance of the victory. “They’re going to win a lot of games, man. You get a win over a team like that, it’s massive.”
UCLA guard Trent Perry scored 21 points – largely on the strength of making 11 of 11 free throws – and Dailey and Jaylen Petty added 13 points apiece as the Bruins withstood Arizona’s Ivan Kharkchenkov scoring 38 points.
“Trent’s one of the best closers in the country,” Cronin said. “That’s one of the least of my worries if we get a lead – he’s like [former New York Yankee] Mariano Rivera at the foul line.”
When it was over, UCLA players pointed to a large throng of students behind one basket who had made the trip from Westwood. Those students stuck around to serenade Perry by chanting his name as he gleefully bounded off the court after completing an interview.
“I love this team,” Perry said. “Everybody’s coming here to play and everybody knows what they’re capable of.”
There was plenty to celebrate inside an arena where the crowd tilted heavenly in the Wildcats’ favor, “U of A!” chants filling the place before player introductions.
Those same fans were silent in the final moments.
Cronin said the game was won by his team’s defense and its rebounding – which was exponentially improved from a year ago – as well as its ability to take care of the ball until it struggled a bit with the full-court press late in the game.
The Bruins grabbed one more rebound than the Wildcats (0-1) while committing four fewer turnovers.
“It’s not a fight for me with these guys, at all,” he said of his players embracing his core principles. “They get it and they believe it.”
This was a triumph that bucked a longstanding trend of disappointment inside this arena for UCLA in recent years.
The Bruins never won a Pac-12 tournament here – thanks, Tony Padilla, for that horrible offensive foul call on Amari Bailey in 2023 – and lost to Gonzaga in another heartbreaker during the 2023 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
After UCLA lost to Baylor in this arena earlier in that same season, Cronin could be heard yelling two doors down from the locker room.
He couldn’t have had many complaints at halftime Monday with his team holding a 43-29 lead.
The Bruins were a bit shorthanded, missing forward Filip Jovic after the transfer from Auburn sprained his left ankle in practice on Friday. He was wearing a protective walking boot to the game and is considered day to day.
It was only a few minutes into the game before UCLA found itself with another problem – foul trouble. The Wildcats were in the bonus with 13:37 left to go in the first half and ended up making 12 of 16 free throws before heading to the locker room.
Cronin said his team’s foul trouble was largely a function of Arizona being hard to guard.
“Kharchenkov is a bull, Motiejus Krivas is a monster and Tommy [Lloyd] is a really good coach,” Cronin said. “They hunt the paint better than any team in the country as far as their downhill attack, so obviously we’ve got to do a better job of it, but you’re not going to play many people who do it as well as them.”
UCLA responded to its foul trouble – two players had three fouls and three others had two fouls – by going to a zone defense that confounded the Wildcats. Petty also ran the offense spectacularly with Perry on the bench in foul trouble.
“Our team just doesn’t quit,” Petty said after playing the entire first half.
The Bruins ripped off a 14-0 run in just 2 minutes that was highlighted by a Sergej Macura 3-pointer in which he was fouled, making the resulting free throw to complete a rare 4-point play.
Likely headed for a massive leap in the rankings, UCLA now gets to find out something else: How will it respond to early season hype?
“Now everybody can tell these guys how good they are,” Cronin said, “so you’ve got to stay humble and you’ve got to stay hungry and you’ve got to maintain humility.”
