This post was updated Jan. 3 at 7:14 p.m.

Too little, too late.

Despite a miraculous second-half effort – which saw the Bruins cut the deficit from 24 to as little as four with 3:13 remaining in the contest – UCLA men’s basketball (10-4, 2-1 Big Ten) flatlined 74-61 to No. 25 Iowa (12-2, 2-1) Saturday afternoon at Hawkeye-Carver Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. 

UCLA’s lackluster first-half performance could have been due to an 11-game absence from the hardwood, since the team last played on Dec. 23 against UC Riverside prior to the Jan. 3 contest, while Iowa played just five days earlier at home.

“It was just us. We weren’t off 10 days. We practiced. We were going just as hard in practice as we would in the game, so that’s not an excuse in any way,” said senior guard Donovan Dent.

After shooting 37.5% from the field and committing more turnovers than assists in the first half – which culminated in just 22 points – the Bruins came out fighting in the second frame.

Dent, who garnered 25 points and five assists on 12-for-19 shooting from the field, knocked down 20 of his grand total in the second half to lead the comeback attempt, 14 more than the closest post-intermission scorer.

“We played our style of defense, stopped letting them do what they want – pick and roll, pocket, skip three’s – we took a lot of that away in the second half, and then we (have) to be smarter towards the end of the stretch,” Dent said.

But Dent’s second-half performance could not pull the Bruins out of the hole they dug themselves into.

And Hawkeye guard Bennett Stirtz – an AP All-American honorable mention last season from when he was at Drake – scored 27 points on an 80% clip from the field, to deter the Bruins’ come-from-behind effort.

“We are not going to make excuses, we have to be ready to play, myself included,” said senior forward Tyler Bilodeau. “Defensively, we just had some mishaps, got to keep the ball in front. And then offensively: turnovers. I can’t have five turnovers in the first, so (have) to be better there.”

But the Bruins also kept holding themselves back after the first half. 

UCLA committed 23 fouls – leading to 26 Iowa free throw attempts, 22 of which were converted.

“Discipline – there’s no other excuse. We are all older. We can’t keep doing silly fouls at the end of the game,” Dent said.

The most detrimental of which came from fifth year guard Jamar Brown in the final possessions, when he fouled a Hawkeye on a missed shot, leading to two free throws which eliminated the four-point deficit – the closest scoring margin since early in the first frame.

“We would have had a chance, we got it to four, and we had some really dumb fouls … four off the top of my head,” said coach Mick Cronin. “When a team is struggling to score, the last thing you do is put them at the line, and that was being told to the guys over and over every dead ball and every timeout.”

Iowa reflected its esteemed defensive reputation  – the team ranks first in the Big Ten in fewest points allowed per game and fourth in the nation in scoring defense – by limiting UCLA to 3-for-14 from beyond the arc. The Bruins entered the contest ranked second in the conference in 3-point percentage with a 39.8% clip.

UCLA’s inefficient shooting could be chalked up to the senior guard Skyy Clark’s lower body injury that limited him to 22 minutes played and five points. Clark did not return after leaving with the non-contact injury.

Bilodeau – the Bruins leading scorer the last two years – scored just 10 points and shot 30% from the field after averaging more than 19 points heading into the contest.

UCLA’s shooting woes stretched beyond Bilodeau, too.

Entering the first Big Ten affair of the new year, UCLA had six players averaging more than eight points per game including four double-digit scorers, but only two Bruins reached the 10-point mark.

Outside inefficiency from the floor, the Bruins continue to be outmatched from the bench.

Iowa outscored UCLA 28-13 from the pine, and sophomore guard Trent Perry led the Bruin bench with seven points while shooting 2-for-9 from the field.

The Bruins needed to start the 18-game 2026 regular season conference slate with a win to solidify their March Madness resume because they failed to beat both ranked non-conference opponents in Gonzaga and Arizona and also got upset by California in late November during the non-conference campaign.

Now, the Bruins boast an 0-3 record against ranked teams.

“You shouldn’t have to get down like that to play with maximum effort. We were letting our offensive struggles affect us,” Cronin said. “We came in here with a gameplan of: if you turn it over, you are going to lose, and we turned it over nine times in the first half. We were unbelievably soft on offense and on defense.”

UCLA will next play against Wisconsin on Tuesday in Madison, Wisconsin.