UCLA men’s basketball drops lead to USC in last second, loses Pac-12 title chance

This post was updated March 7 at 11:07 p.m.

The Bruins keep finding new ways to lose.

UCLA men’s basketball (17-8, 13-6 Pac-12) dropped its fourth straight game to crosstown rival USC (21-6, 15-5) on Saturday, losing 64-63 after allowing a fadeaway corner 3-pointer to guard Tahj Eaddy with 1.4 seconds remaining. The Bruins never trailed until Eaddy’s shot, and they have now blown second-half leads in three straight games.

“We’re playing as well as we can play,” said coach Mick Cronin, who has yet to beat USC since coming to Westwood. “We just played three really good teams. We played really well, that’s my opinion. I’m helping them as much as I can help. The goal now is to make sure they don’t quit fighting, because we’re overachieving. They’re giving everything they got. My fear is they run out of gas.”

UCLA had several chances to put the game away or at least play for overtime, but it scored just two points in the final five minutes. Sophomore guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and junior guard Jules Bernard both came up empty on 1-and-1 chances in the final minute, with the team finishing the game 6-of-11 from the free-throw line.

Bernard’s miss came with the Bruins up by two with 11 seconds left on the clock, and he said he made sure to apologize to his teammates for coming up short with the game on the line.

“Just as a player who loves to play basketball, who loves those big moments, it’s tough to miss that free throw,” Bernard said. “It was definitely tough, and I feel bad for my teammates that I sort of put the team in a position where USC could eventually win the game.”

One year ago, the Bruins played the Trojans with the Pac-12 regular-season title on the line – as was the case Saturday – and after hitting their free throws in crunch time, it was USC guard Jonah Mathews who hit the last-second 3-pointer for the win.

Eaddy’s shot came from a different spot on the court, but the result was essentially the same, sinking the Bruins and their hopes at a conference title in the process.

UCLA led by as many as 13 points in the game and 10 in the second half, including an eight-point lead with four minutes to play. The Bruin defense poked the ball loose and forced a jump ball with three seconds to play, after which the Trojans inbounded it to Eaddy for the dagger.

Cronin tried to use one of his two remaining timeouts to draw up a last-second play, but the game went on and all UCLA could muster was a contested half-court heave by Bernard as the buzzer sounded.

“Any veteran referee, when that ball goes in, looks over his shoulder at the coach – I was ignored,” Cronin said. “From my experience, if I say anything, I’ll get reprimanded. And I’m sure his excuse was he couldn’t hear me.”

Bernard’s prayer was off the mark, and the Trojans celebrated their comeback win in a nearly empty Pauley Pavilion.

Four Bruins finished in double figures, and that was without their leading scorer, sophomore guard Johnny Juzang, who missed the game with an ankle injury he sustained in Friday’s practice. UCLA didn’t seem to miss Juzang in the opening half, as it went into the break shooting 60% from the field and 66.7% from deep while holding onto a 36-25 lead.

The first-half performance didn’t turn out to give the Bruins enough of a cushion, however, and Cronin said he wouldn’t speak about it considering his team was outscored by 12 points in the second.

“I never talk about the first half,” Cronin said. “Losers talk about, ‘We were winning at halftime.’ The most irrelevant stat in the history of sports is the halftime score. It has absolutely no bearing on anything.”

A win Saturday would have vaulted the Bruins into first place on the final day of the regular season, but their slide down the standings continued instead. UCLA is now locked in as the No. 4 seed in the Pac-12 tournament and will play Oregon State on Thursday in Las Vegas. 

“We put ourselves in a good spot, and we let that slip away,” Jaquez said. “And so going into that tournament, we’re going to try to stick with that mentality and try to prove to ourselves that we’re still that team.”