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Can a team be in crisis just a handful of games into conference play?
UCLA is testing that possibility given what happened here Tuesday night as part of a larger downward trend.
Lacking one of their top players with guard Skyy Clark sidelined by a hamstring injury, the Bruins also were deficient in many other areas.
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Defense. Heart. Toughness. Cohesion. Intelligence.
In a game that the Bruins needed to win to get their season back on track and have any realistic chance at an elite finish in the Big Ten, they fell flat once more.
Another terrible first half led to another failed comeback for UCLA during an 80-72 loss to Wisconsin on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center, leaving the Bruins in search of answers that seem elusive.
There was a dustup with 10 seconds left when UCLA’s Eric Dailey Jr. pushed Wisconsin’s Nolan Winter after absorbing a hard foul, forcing a scrum of players to congregate along the baseline. Winter was assessed a flagrant-1 foul and Dailey a technical foul that was offset by a technical foul on Badgers guard Nick Boyd.
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About the only thing to celebrate for the Bruins was not giving up.
Thanks to a flurry of baskets from Dailey and a three-pointer from Trent Perry that broke his team’s 0-for-14 start from long range, UCLA pulled to within 63-56 midway through the second half. Making the Bruins’ rally all the more improbable was that much of it came with leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau on the bench with four fouls.
But Wisconsin countered with five consecutive points and the Bruins (10-5 overall, 2-2 Big Ten) never mounted another threat on the way to a second consecutive loss.
Read more: Life on the road with UCLA men’s basketball has been a real trip
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Dailey scored 18 points but missed all five of his three-pointers, fitting for a team that made just one of 17 shots (5.9%) from long range. Bilodeau added 16 points and Perry had 15.
Winter scored 18 points to lead the Badgers (10-5, 2-2), who won in large part by their…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/problems-continue-mount-ucla-men-042255621.html
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Publish date : 2026-01-07 04:22:00
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