This post was updated Jan. 20 at 11:01 p.m.

Eight seconds remained.

The Bruins trailed by one.

Tyler Bilodeau stood beyond the arc, ball in his hand, no one between him and the basket, and with no hesitation – he let it fly.

Swish.

Down goes No. 4. 

The Bruins did what they have yet to do all season – beat a ranked team in a virtual must-win game.

“I would have been pleased if Tyler had missed a shot and we lost. I just want us to fight and I thought we fought,” said coach Mick Cronin.

Powered by a Skyy Clark-less backcourt of Donovan Dent and Trent Perry – who combined for 34 points and 15 assists – UCLA men’s basketball (13-6, 5-3 Big Ten) upset No. 4 Purdue (17-2, 7-1) on Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins’ victory kept them unbeaten at home while also handing the Boilermakers their first conference loss of the season.

Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau said the Bruins were unable to keep up with the Buckeyes backcourt Saturday. Guards Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. combined for 49 points on 15-for-26 collective shooting from the field.

“They had two really tough guards. We just got to be more ready to play (and) step up to the fight,” Bilodeau said.

And the Bruin backcourt rose to the occasion Tuesday night.

While guard Braden Smith set the all-time Big Ten assists record Jan. 3, Dent was the passing artist Tuesday night. The reigning Mountain West Player of the Year split defenders, dribbled around screens and ran all over the court en route to 13 assists – his highest tally of the year and the third time he reached double-digit assists this season.

“You have to find a way. You have to throw punches (and) get in the ring. I don’t care if you miss a play. Quit being a bystander. So give him (Dent) all the credit. We don’t win if he doesn’t show up tonight,” Cronin said. 

But Dent was not just the facilitator; he was the aggressor too, garnering 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting from the field. The former AP All-American honorable mention maneuvered around the Purdue defense in transition and on the break.

Dent’s performance came after he converted just four shot attempts against Ohio State on Saturday.

“He got on me pretty bad at that Ohio State game,” Dent said. “Everyone was there in the locker room – he challenged me personally, mentally, every way possible. He was challenging me this whole week. And that’s the response he wanted right there, being able to come back out and not back down.”

But Dent was not alone either. 

Perry, who continued to be one of the most impactful players on the team, knocked down four shots for 11 points but added four rebounds as well. 

On the opposite end of the court, Smith – the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year and the preseason pick to earn the award – and guard Fletcher Loyer combined for just 17 points despite averaging 14.7 and 13.4 points per game on the season, respectively.

But the biggest disparity between this and last season’s Bruin-Boilermaker matchup was forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who scored 29 points on 11-for-15 shooting from the field at Mackey Arena in 2025 but mustered just 10 points at Pauley Pavilion.

Forward/center Xavier Booker and Bilodeau played a large part in Kaufman-Renn’s hindered performance. 

Booker – who scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field through 35 minutes – scored his most since Dec. 13 and played his highest minute total all season. 

The former five-star prospect has yet to play more than 20 minutes in over a month and went the last two games without scoring a point.

“(We’re) trying to play the guys that give us the best chance to win,” Cronin said Saturday regarding Booker’s limited action. 

But Booker, like the rest of the Bruin roster, went above and beyond, adding three blocks to his tally.

Junior guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr., who scored 12 points and led the Bruins in rebounding with seven boards, rounded out the UCLA risers.

Dailey’s thunderous dunk at the end of the first half caused reverberating screams that drowned out the ‘Boiler up’ chants from the Purdue faithful – an allusion to what Pauley Pavilion is capable of.

“Plays like that definitely shift the energy of the game. I want to thank the fans, first off, because it brought that energy that we needed to play with,” Dailey said. “Plays like that – him finding me on that – is big. Those are plays we need to shift energy and go up.”

It takes an above-and-beyond effort to best the top-ranked teams in the country.

And the Bruins did just that against then-No. 4.

“He (Dent) was out there fighting and scrapping, playing with his heart (and) giving everything he had for his team. That’s what sports are about,” Cronin said. “What he did tonight. We need it from him every night, and you aren’t going to get 23 (points) and 13 (assists) every night, but …  (he was) all over the place, defensively, rising to the challenge. It’s been a fight this year, and it’s far from over.”