California lifted its emergency drought period in March of 2023.

And in December of 2024, the Bruins ended an eight-year drought of their own.

No. 22 UCLA men’s basketball took down No. 14 Gonzaga in a 65-62 victory at the West Coast Hoops Showdown in Inglewood, California, for the Intuit Dome’s first ever taste of collegiate basketball. The top-25 matchup also marked the Bruins’ third win against the Bulldogs since 1999.

Behind a No. 7 nationally ranked scoring defense, the Bruins held the No. 1 scoring offense in the country to just 62 points in the game – a stark difference from the 89.3 points the Bulldogs have averaged this season. The two teams exchanged the lead three times across the second half, making the victory one of the Bruins’ tightest of the year.

Sophomore guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr. led the Bruins’ offense with 18 points and six rebounds – one point short of his season-high performance at Oregon. Junior guard Skyy Clark secured a UCLA victory after sinking two free throws with less than 15 seconds to go and denied Gonzaga a five-peat.

“I put in the hours in the gym,” Dailey Jr. said. “It’s the same objective every day.”

The quest for UCLA’s first win against Gonzaga since 2016 started scrappy – each side fighting for possession after recording a combined 20 turnovers in the first half, with nine coming from the local team. Despite a slower start, the Bruins picked up the pace in the final six minutes of the game by more than doubling their offensive production compared to the first 14 minutes.

Dailey Jr. later initiated an 11-point run when the Bruins trailed by two points in the first half, but he was later fouled on by guard Khalif Battle – the Bulldogs’ third-best scorer this season – who received a flagrant-two foul and was ejected from the game.

Senior guard Lazar Stefanovic led UCLA’s scoring in the first half after recording eight of the Bruins’ 27 points, going 2-for-3 from the deep.

Junior forward Tyler Bilodeau struggled to showcase the offensive prowess he’s displayed all season, recording just three points in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Oregon State transfer went 1-for-7 from the field in the first half, with the sole score coming from the deep.

UCLA picked up the pace after a slower start in the first half, scoring over half of its first-half point with less than seven minutes left. Dailey Jr. and Stefanovic rose to the occasion, recording a combined 16 points to the start off the Bruins’ quest.

The squad held a nine-point lead with just four minutes left in the first half, but Gonzaga turned up the heat to notch an untouched 9-0 run of its own to narrow the score 27-25 heading into the second half.

While Dailey Jr. and Stefanovic creaked the door for a UCLA victory in the first half, senior guard Kobe Johnson and Bildoeau slammed it open by holding down the fort in the second half. The pair posted a combined 16 points and eight rebounds to send the Bruins to win in their first match at a neutral Los Angeles arena since 2012.

“Kobe is going to be super impressive because we do all the same drills that the NBA does with the speed clock,” said coach Mick Cronin. “It’s just been a matter of time before that translated into a game.”

Guard Ryan Nembhard – the national leader in assists – returned the advantage to the Bulldogs for the first time nearly three minutes into the second half, setting up what would become a back-to-back exchange of tie points between the teams.

“I told all of these guys, … ‘It’s going to be World War III,’” Cronin said. “I told ’em it was coming.”

Both teams put up less than 20 points each in the final 10 minutes of the game, exchanging the game’s lead all throughout. Neither team held a lead larger than seven points in the game’s final half.

Rebounding after a loss against North Carolina, the victory marks UCLA’s second ranked win of the year and its final match of the calendar year. The win will set up coach Mick Cronin’s squad as it heads into a slate of Big Ten conference play to begin the new year in 2025.

“Win or lose today, I was a miserable person after the (North) Carolina game,” Cronin said. “These guys, … they absolutely love my sweet demeanor and soft touch as their coach.”