INDIANAPOLIS – There will be time for BYU basketball to reflect on the magic of the 2020-21 season, the team’s first NCAA tournament since 2015 and a return to the Big Dance popularly known as’ March Madness’, the biggest spectacle in North. American sports.
That time will come.
But it wasn’t a Saturday night at the historic Hinkle Fielddhouse.
Johnny Juzang played on a bumpy ankle and threw in 27 points, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists as UCLA won its second game in three nights with a resounding 73-62 win over BYU, ending the Cougars’ first tournament appearance since 2015 after just one game.
A year after a win over a nearly identical UCLA team at the Maui Invitational in Hawaii, the Cougars couldn’t ride the same wave to a win.
Alex Barcello led BYU with 20 points and five rebounds, and fellow senior Brandon Averette scored 10 of his 15 second half points for the Cougars, who were 11 behind at the break and never permanently in the lead.
Matt Haarms delivered 11 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots for BYU (20-7).
“There are a lot of feelings right now,” said an emotional Haarms over a zoom microphone in the tunnels below the Indianapolis court. “That was my study career … it just sucks, going out like that in the first round.”
After falling behind early on, BYU caught up and never caught the Pac-12’s sprinting Bruins – bringing five teams to the Round of 32, including Oregon win without a game on virus-ridden VCU.
For UCLA, the joy of a March run continues. For BYU, the agony of defeat.
“This is what we live for. This is the pinnacle of college basketball and playing for the Bruins – I’m from Los Angeles – we’re all brothers,” said Juzang, a product of Harvard-Westlake High School of Tarzana, California. “Playing for the home team and making everyone on the team proud, and everyone in the stands, it’s a great feeling to bring wins for the UCLA Bruins.”
The peaks on one side of the field and the lowest feel in BYU history for the past five years. Welcome to March.
Offensively, there were too many shots that BYU normally makes that didn’t go Saturday night: Haarms’ hookshot, Barcello’s step-back jumper. The Cougars shot 10 more free throws than UCLA, but made only 7 of 13 from the charity mark while Bruins were 3-of-3 for the last four minutes.
BYU shot 49% of the field, but only 3 of 17 from 3-point range – including an unusual 1-of-7 in the second half – making only 9 of 16 free throws.
“Obviously we didn’t get the ball right from the three-point line or the free-throw line,” said BYU coach Mark Pope, matching his senior point guard Averette’s emotion as he left the field with his face buried in his white sweater with the words “Brigham” on the front. “Credit UCLA for that. They kept on our heels for a substantial part of the first half.
“It does happen sometimes. We have been able to overcome nights like that for this season. We just haven’t overcome it tonight. There will be some nights when you don’t shoot the ball right. We have answers; we can still play matches. “We just didn’t get it done tonight.”
It happens, but not by accident.
“What we wanted to do tonight was not give up a set of threes,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, whose team won back-to-back games for the first time since a run of four consecutive games against Utah on Feb. 25. “A team like BYU, the three-point shot is their fuel.”
BYU looked like a team that hadn’t played under the bright lights of the NCAA tournament in nearly six years – which, to be fair, last hit the top 68 in college basketball in 2015.
BYU missed their first six shots, then Barcello removed the lid from the basket with a 3-pointer with 16:10 left in the half. The Cougars checked the glass early and didn’t let UCLA get an offensive rebound for nearly six minutes, but BYU never led in the first half.
In 40 minutes of playtime, BYU never led. The Bruins were almost 55 seconds ahead of the scoreboard.
UCLA shot 15-of-31 off the field in the first half, including 6-of-10 from 3-point range, scoring 11 points on seven turnovers.
Just two nights after leaving the Bruins’ First Four game against Michigan State with a right ankle injury, Juzang threw in 19 points on 8-of-11 shots in the first half, including three 3-pointers, for a UCLA squad holding BYU. to just two assists on 11 field goals.
“The first half was a struggle for us, because of Juzang and the way he played,” said Haarms. “We couldn’t implement our game plan.
“In the second half, we clawed it back to five and then they shifted it back to 11. We just couldn’t claw it back to them when it mattered.”
The Cougars used a 9-0 sprint to narrow the deficit to four, 43-39 in the second half, holding the Bruins scoreless on five consecutive holdings over 3:18. But UCLA responded with a 7-2 spurt of its own, pushing the lead back to 11 in the middle of the second half.
BYU found scores shoes in the second half to stick with UCLA.
Stopping the Bruins turned out to be another problem. Stopping Juzang was especially tricky, but UCLA then added Jaquez and Jules Bernard (16 points, five rebounds) while outsourcing the BYU bench 13-7.
Apart from the three seniors, Caleb Lohner had the most meaningful evening with 6 points and 10 rebounds. But the freshman of Wasatch Academy was also hindered with four errors.
“It’s a game. It’s March. It’s happening,” said Pope. “But credit UCLA; they played great, and we just couldn’t quite get over the bump.”