Washington Scores 19 to Lead Bearcats Past UCLA, 77-63

The University of Cincinnati Bearcats recorded their most impressive win of the season Saturday with a convincing 77-63 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

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Washington Scores 19 to Lead Bearcats Past UCLA, 77-63Washington Scores 19 to Lead Bearcats Past UCLA, 77-63


By Bill Koch
Go.Bearcats.com


LOS ANGELES – Strictly speaking, the University of Cincinnati's 77-63 victory over UCLA on Saturday probably doesn't qualify as a revenge win because five of the top eight players in the Bruins' rotation didn't play last year when UCLA eliminated UC in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

But don't tell that to the Bearcats, who savored the win as if they had just paid back the Bruins in full before 10,018 fans at Pauley Pavilion.
    
Who can blame them?

The Bearcats were upset that they didn't play their best game against UCLA last year. They didn't show UC basketball for what they know it to be, and they were eager to get a second chance in front of a national TV audience on CBS.

"When you lose to a team and you get to play them again, even though it's not the same team this year, it's still the same school," said junior swingman Jacob Evans.

The victory gave No. 25 UC (9-2) back-to-back wins after losing to Xavier and Florida, and a 2-2 record in the toughest non-league stretch on their schedule. It also gave the Bearcats a 3-2 edge all-time over UCLA. The Bruins (7-3) lost for only the second time in their last 23 home games.

Kyle Washington led UC with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Evans scored 16 points, and Gary Clark produced his third double-double of the season and the 21st of his career with 10 points and 11 rebounds. He also had four assists, three blocked shots and three steals. Jarron Cumberland scored 10 points. And UC's two point guards – Justin Jenifer and Cane Broome – totaled 16 points between them with four assists and two steals, while splitting the time evenly at 20 minutes apiece.

Aaron Holiday led UCLA with 17 points. Jaylen Hands scored 14, all in the second half. The UC defense held the Bruins, who averaged 84.8 points entering the game, to a tie for their lowest point total of the season. 

The Bearcats forced 18 turnovers, 15 in the first half, when they took control of the game after trailing by five in the early going.

"You can't play much better on the road," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "I thought we played really well on both ends. We withstood a charge when they made some really hard threes late. When they made a run we executed in the half-court a couple times and got some easy buckets inside, which is the sign of a veteran team. When they hit some threes we didn't come down and try to match them. We ran clock, got the ball inside. We got second and third shots and got some easy buckets."

The Bearcats trailed, 21-18, after a Prince Ali 3-pointer for UCLA with 6:59 left in the first half.  That would be the last field goal of the half for the Bruins. UC went on an 18-0 run take a 36-21 lead on two Broome free throws with 1:23 left. The only points for UCLA over the last 6:59 were two free throws by Alex Olesinski with 17.7 seconds left. The Bearcats finished the half on an 18-2 run and led at halftime, 36-23.

The Bruins struggled to handle UC's full-court defensive pressure in the first half when they were limited to 38.1 percent shooting.

"I thought we had gotten got away from our pressure too much," Cronin said. "We don't need to steal the ball, but it sets the tone. It's who we are. We were trying to wear Holiday down as much as possible because they don't have a guard who played on their team last year other than him.

"We tried to take his legs away. I thought the more up and down the game was, the more we could make him run the floor and he would not be as effective. But you've got to score to press. Once we started getting the ball in the basket we were able to set our pressure. That's when the game turned."

It's doubtful that any UC player felt worse about his performance against UCLA last year than Washington, who scored only four points and made two of his 10 field goal attempts.

"I know I wasn't there for my team last year and I wanted to make sure that I was (this time)," Washington said. "As a competitor, I just wanted to show I was way better than that. I didn't show what I could do on the defensive or on the offensive end last year in the tournament and I was really hurt by that."

Washington did much of his scoring from the perimeter, but was also effective inside. Since he went scoreless against Xavier, he's averaged 15 points while making 19 of 34 from the field in his last three games.  

"I talked to him before the Mississippi State game," Cronin said. "I said, 'Look, you've got to slow down. You've got to take your time. If he takes his time, the way he shoots his jump hook, you can't block it."

Not only did Washington flourish on offense, he limited Thomas Welsh, UCLA's 7-foot center, to four points, nine below his average. Welsh attempted only one shot in the entire first half.

There were plenty of UC fans on hand at Pauley, including former UC stars Kenyon Martin and Ruben Patterson. When the Bearcats extended their lead to 19 with 12:38 to play, the UC contingent was louder than the UCLA fans when it broke into a rhythmic chant of "Let's go Bearcats."

The Bruins did manage to mount a late comeback on the strength of 8-of-18 shooting from 3-point range in the second half and twice got within 10 points, but the Bearcats had an answer both times. One of those answers came in the form of an Evans follow shot with 5:53 left and UC leading, 59-49.

"Gary and Kyle were down there fighting," Evans said. "They were probably getting held and boxed out by two or three people and I just came in and scooped it up. They make my job easy when they're down there battling. I just ran in and got the easy one for us."

UCLA pulled within 10 a second time by taking advantage of four straight missed free throws by UC – three by Cumberland, who was 0-for-5 from the line for the game – before the Bearcats made five of their last six to close out the win. 

The UC players were a jovial bunch as they boarded the bus for the drive to the airport and the long flight back to Cincinnati. They felt immeasurably better about themselves this time than they did last March when they faced the flight home from Sacramento after losing to UCLA.

"We were just using our defense to spark our offense," Washington said. "We have great offensive players on this team, but the way this program is rooted, it's rooted off the defense. I have to buy into that and I have to keep on exerting myself on the defensive end and I think we'll be all right."

Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.