UCLA pulls away from Long Beach State with dominant 2nd half

LOS ANGELES — For a moment, determination was a consciousness of concern.

Long Beach State guards Joel Murray and Colin Slater were putting connected a amusement that indicated an upset bid was connected their mind. Perhaps, the quick, savvy guards who combined for 57 points could drawback UCLA connected a droopy Monday nighttime aft the exhilaration of Friday night’s triumph implicit fourth-ranked Villanova had worn off, and a matchup with top-ranked Gonzaga conscionable a week away.

Some mightiness telephone it a trap game.

But the second-ranked Bruins took power successful the 2nd fractional and ran distant with an eventual 100-79 triumph to adjacent retired their 3rd consecutive location crippled to commencement the play astatine Pauley Pavilion.

Johnny Juzang led UCLA with 25 points connected 11-of-21 shooting. Jules Bernard tallied 22 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds successful 36 minutes. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 17 points, Tyger Campbell had 14 points and six assists, and Jaylen Clark added 10 points and six rebounds.

Murray finished with a game-high 30 points (and 9 of his team’s 25 turnovers), and Slater scored 27 connected 10-of-13 shooting, including 5 3-pointers.

“We gave up 57 points to 2 players, and that’s evidently unacceptable,” Bernard said.

The vigor of the postgame property league felt similar that of a nonaccomplishment adjacent though the Bruins won by 21. UCLA manager Mick Cronin wasn’t pleased.

“If I had a brace of sneakers, I deliberation I could person scored connected immoderate of our guys tonight,” helium said.

Murray scored 28 points successful Long Beach’s play opener past week, truthful his accumulation was somewhat expected, but it was Slater’s show successful the archetypal fractional that had the fans successful Pauley Pavilion gasping. Slater made six consecutive shots, including 3 3-pointers.

“I’ve got to springiness congratulations to Murray and Slater,” Cronin said. “Those guys played great. Give them a batch of credit. I’ve been doing this agelong enough, you’ve got to springiness different radical credit. So, bully for those kids.”

It was portion of a 12-0 tally for Long Beach (1-1), and a agelong of 10 consecutive made shots. UCLA’s 23-16 pb turned into a 28-23 shortage with 7:16 near successful the opening half. Campbell deed back-to-back 3-pointers to assistance UCLA regain the lead, 31-28, but Slater struck again with a blow-by layup astir Bernard to knot the people astatine 36-36 astatine the 3:51 mark.

Long Beach changeable 69% successful the archetypal fractional and finished the crippled astatine 58%, but the precocious percent is deceiving. LBSU’s 14 turnovers successful the 2nd fractional contributed to UCLA’s 78 full shots, 23 much than Long Beach’s 55. The 25 full turnovers (by Long Beach) were the astir forced successful 1 crippled by UCLA since Nov. 12, 2010 (vs. CSUN), erstwhile the Bruins forced 27 turnovers.

“We conscionable person to get better,” Long Beach manager Dan Molson said. “We showed that we could vie against bully teams for stretches, but the crippled is 40 minutes. We competed good successful ample stretches, but we conscionable person to enactment it each together.”

The Bruins’ constrictive 48-45 pb astatine halftime ballooned to a 14-point pb aft they started the 2nd fractional connected a 16-5 run. Their suffocating defense, which didn’t look to marque an quality successful the archetypal half, was yet connected display. The Bruins led 78-62 aft a Jaquez Jr. layup astatine the 10-minute people of the 2nd half. UCLA led by astatine slightest 12 the remaining six minutes of the game.

“We person a squad wherever everyone is returning, truthful we cognize the level that we’re susceptible of playing at,” Juzang said. “So, conscionable winning a crippled isn’t ever going to fulfill us. It’s however you performed… . You cognize erstwhile you’ve made excessively galore mistakes.”

JUZANG GETS PAC-12 HONOR

Juzang was voted the Pac-12 Player of the Week Monday aft averaging 22 points and six rebounds per crippled done the Bruins’ archetypal 2 games, including a 25-point, 8-rebound show successful the triumph implicit fourth-ranked Villanova Friday nighttime 86-77 successful overtime.

Its Juzang’s 2nd clip earning the grant successful his career. He was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Feb. 15, 2021. Juzang was the lone UCLA subordinate to unafraid Player of the Week honors past season.