UCLA men’s basketball defeats Colorado in first conference game of season

This post was updated Dec. 2 at 12:38 a.m.

Myles Johnson pump-faked left.

Then, he pump-faked right.

And, for good measure, he pump-faked left one final time, drawing his defender off balance while positioned deep inside the paint.

Johnson then turned over his left shoulder, flipped the ball up with his right hand and gave the Bruins an early 2-0 lead on the first play of the game.

“Me and (associate head coach Darren) Savino literally were working on that exact move before the game,” the redshirt senior center said. “I’m happy that today it worked very well.”

No. 5 UCLA men’s basketball (7-1, 1-0 Pac-12) would hold onto that lead the rest of the way, beating Colorado (6-2, 1-1) by a score of 73-61 on Wednesday night in Pauley Pavilion. With the victory, the Bruins picked up their first conference win since February on the back of a season-high 12 points from Johnson.

The center said his season-best offensive performance was the culmination of a constant back and forth with coach Mick Cronin.

“Coach always wants me to be the best player I can,” Johnson said. “Sometimes I think (about) passing it out when we got tremendous shooters, but Coach always pushes me like, ‘Oh, you’re in the paint. It’s your time.’”

The only Bruins ahead of Johnson on the scoresheet were redshirt junior guard Tyger Campbell and junior guard Johnny Juzang, who scored 21 and 15 points, respectively. Campbell’s point total was also a season high.

Including Johnson’s early post-hook, UCLA started the game 4-of-5 from the field while holding its opponent to 25% shooting from the field in the first four minutes, giving the Bruins a 9-4 lead at the under-16 timeout.

After UCLA extended the lead to seven, junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. went up for a layup but was fouled by a Colorado defender, causing him to hit his head on the hardwood and exit the game eight minutes into the first half. Jaquez did not return for the rest of the contest.

Cronin said the decision to leave Jaquez out for the second half was a precautionary measure.

“All our doctors did all the stuff, they actually cleared him, but I just wasn’t comfortable,” Cronin said. “That’s your job as a coach. Sometimes you’ve got to save the players from themselves. … Once in a while, I do something right.”

Jaquez’s extended absence left junior guard/forward Jake Kyman, senior guard David Singleton and sophomore guard Jaylen Clark to soak up the minutes. 

With Clark on the floor, the Bruins later extended the lead to double digits on an 11-0 run – a streak that was capped off by a poster right-handed slam by the sophomore and an above-the-break 3-pointer from senior guard Jules Bernard. 

“(The bench) was a big part of why we were able to put the run on them – keep trying to push the ball, keep trying to use our bench,” Cronin said. “Jaylen Clark did a lot of good things. He does a lot of things that don’t show up in the stat sheet.”

The run forced Colorado coach Tad Boyle to use a timeout, after which his team was able to shed a point off of the deficit as UCLA went into the halftime locker room up 16. 

Just like how he started the night, Johnson put the Bruins on the board early in the second half on a layup – this time after a few Buffalo buckets. Johnson followed it up with a block on Colorado forward Jabari Walker.

Along with his 12 points, Johnson finished the night with 10 rebounds and, according to Cronin, 14 deflections – a stat the coach termed a “UCLA triple-double.”

“What I told him was, ‘That’s what I want to see every game,’” Cronin said. “People have just kind of accepted who he used to be, and my message to him coming here was, ‘I don’t accept that from any of my players.’”

Johnson’s lone block of the night led to a run-out on the other end, resulting in Campbell’s second 3 that restored a 15-point lead.

UCLA scored four points in the next eight minutes, as Colorado cut its deficit to four – the lowest it had been since the scoreboard read 7-4 two and a half minutes into the game. 

From that point on, however, Campbell scored 10 of the Bruins’ final 25 points to give him the season-high scoring total as well as a 12-point victory for the home team. 

“I always try to play confident because I know Coach believes in me, and my team believes in me, and I believe in myself,” Campbell said. “I like to take big shots – I’m sure every player does. Today, the shots went in.”

UCLA is next scheduled to take on Washington on Sunday, a team that postponed its game against Arizona on Wednesday because of COVID-19 developments within its program.