A wire-to-wire performance is needed to close out games, especially against the country’s top teams.

And although the Bruins strung together a competitive first half, they faltered in the second frame Saturday at the Crisler Center, allowing 46 points while netting just 18 on the first leg of their Michigan road trip.

UCLA men’s basketball (17-8, 9-5 Big Ten) now turns to the second leg of its trip to the Mitten State and will face No. 15 Michigan State (20-5, 10-4) at the Breslin Center on Tuesday, just three days after UCLA sustained a 30-point loss to then-No. 2 Michigan on Valentine’s Day.

Despite senior guard Donovan Dent netting a last-second layup as time expired in the first half to cut the Wolverine’s lead to two, the Bruins surrendered a near-80% second-half field goal percentage to their Ann Arbor adversary.

“You can’t have a team score 80 points in their home gym, and they felt very comfortable,” said sophomore guard Trent Perry. “There’s really nothing else to it. They beat us totally in the second half, and we just laid down.”

The Bruins were showing cracks in their defensive foundation even before Saturday’s affair.

UCLA bested Rutgers and Washington on Feb. 3 and Feb. 7 despite allowing the teams to notch 43.6% and 50% clips from the field, respectively.

The Scarlet Knights and Huskies rank in the bottom half of the Big Ten in points per game and field goal percentage, with the former sitting dead-last in point production.

“When we went bad offensively, we weren’t tough enough to continue to defend or good enough defensively to stop them, to keep us in the game until we could make a shot,” said coach Mick Cronin. “Some of that is we got some guys that are conscientious objectors to defense.”

Defensive inconsistency has marred UCLA this season – even beyond its recent struggles.

The squad has limited opponents to 70.5 points per game this season, despite surrendering 65.2 points per contest last season.

And the Bruins rank eighth in defensive scoring, a significant dip compared to their conference-low mark during the 2024-25 campaign.

Although Kobe Johnson, one of the crew’s top defenders last season, graduated, Cronin retained valuable defensive assets in senior guard Skyy Clark and junior guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr., while bolstering their defensive depth with the addition of fifth-year guard Jamar Brown.

Yet, the defensive recipe remains the same for the Bruins.

“If you play the game of basketball with effort and great attitude and fight, that all goes into defense and playing hard,” Dailey said. “It’s all the same thing at the end of the day. When you come in with that attitude, you want to get stops and you defend better.”

And defensive intensity has historically defined UCLA’s upcoming opponent.

The Spartans have maintained their defensive prowess with Tom Izzo – the longest-tenured coach in Big Ten men’s basketball history – helming the team for the 31st-straight season.

Michigan State has ranked in the Big Ten’s top three in fewest points allowed over the past three seasons, and it forfeits just 66.7 points per game this season.

But the Spartan defense struggled in its last game.

The East Lansing squad surrendered 92 points Friday to Wisconsin, which shot 43% from beyond the arc.

And the Spartans forfeited 75-plus points in each of their last five games, three of which they lost.

This included their 83-71 loss to the Wolverines on Jan. 30, when the Spartans’ rival netted 83 points on the road.

Stalwart defense defined UCLA and Michigan State’s matchup last season, when UCLA bested its opponent 63-61, and each team shot sub-40% from the field.

A defensive focus may dictate the affair yet again this season, especially given both teams’ recent defensive lapses.

And Perry said that the Bruins will do whatever it takes to prevent Saturday’s outcome from happening again.

“I want to be a part of winning,” Perry said. “I can’t have being 30-pieced in an away game. We only have each other, and this is not what it’s going to take. Whatever it takes for us to win and get a nice little win under our belts – got to do what we got to do.”