This post was updated Jan. 28 at 11:11 p.m.

An injury to the Bruins’ leading scorer could have been a disaster – especially before one of college basketball’s biggest rivalry games.

Many coaches might instinctively exhaust their depth to conjure up a solution. But coach Mick Cronin has guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr. and center Aday Mara.

Junior forward Tyler Bilodeau’s rolled ankle creaked the door open for his fellow big men – but the pair of sophomores kicked it wide open.

Powered by a quartet of double-digit performances, UCLA men’s basketball (15-6, 6-4 Big Ten) took home Los Angeles’ crosstown showdown in an 82-76 defeat over USC (12-8, 4-5) on Monday night at the Galen Center. Mara helped pilot the Bruins’ victory with 12 points, while racking up team highs in rebounds and blocks with 11 and five, respectively.

“He (Mara) already got the talent and the size,” Dailey said. “When you get the confidence that nobody can stop you – it’s scary.”

Sophomore guard Sebastian Mack’s 3-pointer with 1:08 on the clock all but sealed UCLA’s win after a slippery start to the second half. A late 5-0 scoring run aided the Trojans in cutting their lead to two with fewer than four minutes remaining, but Mack’s last minute triple was too much for the Trojans to overcome.

The Bruins posted just 21 points in the final 20 minutes, nearly allowing the Trojans to sneak from behind while augmenting pressure on the Bruin bench. 

But the pressure wasn’t enough to down Mack – whose precision and scrappiness through the match’s waning minutes earned UCLA a win in episode one of the Bruins and Trojans’ matchup, Big Ten edition.

“That was just my sweet spot,” Mack said. “Late game, clutch shots and stuff – it’s just something I work on.”

Mara has competed in 78 minutes in the last three games – a stark improvement from the 26 he played in the season’s first trio of matchups. With a void left by Bilodeau, Mara ensured the Bruins would not be silenced in the paint. 

Despite UCLA surrendering the tip to USC, Dailey unfroze the scoreboards with a slam dunk off the steal and fast break. The now-unmasked 6-foot-8 stalwart posted a team-high 16 points on 60% shooting from the field. 

“If everybody plays tough and we play together and play connected, we’re going to win,” Dailey said. “That’s the best part about making our team deep.”

Junior guard Dylan Andrews matched Mara’s 12 points, going 2-for-5 and posting eight points in the second half – six from beyond the arc. A pair of successful shots at the free throw line in the final minute guaranteed UCLA’s lead heading into the final half. 

Andrews fell victim to full-body cramps toward the end of the second frame, forcing Cronin to pull his starting point guard out of a nip-and-tuck affair with 5:13 on the clock. 

“It’s part of this season – people get injured, things happen,” Dailey said. “We had people step up and make up for it.”

USC – aiming to exploit a UCLA team that was missing its playmaker – kept its deficit to no more than five through about 4 1/2 minutes. 

But it was then a chance for the Bruins to prove their might even without Bilodeau, Andrews and a fouled-out senior guard Kobe Johnson. 

Prove their might they did, and down went the Trojans. 

From the 46-second mark onward, the Trojans’ fate was established. They just fell further and further down the rivalry pit – capitulating into an eight-point margin with 29 seconds to play before a six-point loss capped off the hosts’ night. 

“We just won two in a row on the road without our leading scorer,” Cronin said. “Not many teams in the country (are) going to win on the road in a rivalry game against a great coach, a heck of a team of older guys without their leading scorer. You have to have faith.”