LOS ANGELES – The No. 22-ranked UCLA men’s basketball team cruised past Cal State Los Angeles, 100-64, in the Bruins’ only exhibition contest of the preseason on Wednesday night in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.
Tyler Bilodeau, a junior forward who transferred to UCLA from Oregon State, scored a team-leading 24 points and connected on 9 of 11 shot attempts. Bilodeau finished with six rebounds and was 6-for-8 at the free throw stripe.
The Bruins had four players who scored in double figures, including Bilodeau. Skyy Clark registered 17 points, Eric Dailey Jr. scored 11 points and Sebastian Mack tallied 10 points. In addition, Kobe Johnson had a team-leading 11 assists and recorded six rebounds and five steals.
Clark shot 7-for-8 from the field and was a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I kind of just let us play in our scrimmage,” said Bruins’ head coach Mick Cronin, in reference to a recent closed scrimmage contest against San Diego State. “Tonight we were much more organized with what we were trying to accomplish, throwing the ball inside. As you can see, Tyler Bilodeau can score. He can score at Oregon State and he can score here. We shot over 50 percent from three tonight. I thought most of our shots were great shots.”
Coach Cronin Postgame Video | S. Clark and T. Bilodeau Postgame Video
UCLA jumped out of the gate against Cal State L.A., racing to leads of 11-0, 15-2, and 20-6 through the games first six minutes. Cal State L.A. battled back midway through the first half, reducing the Bruins’ advantage to five points (20-15) with 11:52 left before halftime.
The Bruins led the visiting Golden Eagles by a 46-30 margin at the intermission. Bilodeau scored 19 of his team-best 24 points in the game’s first half.
UCLA shot 60 percent from the field in the first half and nearly 69 percent from the field after halftime. The Bruins’ lead was never in doubt, as UCLA raced ahead by 22 points, at 57-35, after a 3-point shot by Clark with 16:20 remaining in the game.
A driving layup by Mack at the 10:30 mark followed by a jump shot from Johnson with 9:52 to play put the Bruins on top, 72-47. Following a 3-pointer from Cal State L.A.’s Connor Scales, UCLA’s Lazar Stefanovic answered with a triple to help the Bruins maintain a 25-point cushion.
The Bruins surged ahead by 32 points (87-55) as Stefanovic nailed his second 3-pointer of the contest with 6:18 to play.
Cal State L.A.’s Jaden Lazo scored a team-leading 24 points, connecting on 8 of 13 shots from 3-point range. He did not attempt any shots from within the 3-point arc. Devin Ringer added 14 points off the bench for Cal State L.A.
UCLA finished the game with nine players having logged at least 10 minutes. In all, the Bruins shot 9-for-17 (52.9%) from 3-point territory and 11-for-14 (78.6%) at the free throw line. UCLA registered 10 steals – including five from Johnson – and had four blocked shots (two from Johnson).
Aday Mara was 4-for-4 from the field, scoring eight points and adding five rebounds, in just over seven minutes of action.
Cal State L.A. shot 38.9 percent against the Bruins (21-for-54), including 7-for-27 from 2-point distance (26%) and 14-for-27 from beyond the 3-point arc (51.9%).
The Bruins will officially open their regular season against Rider University on Monday, Nov. 4. Game time against Rider is set for 7:30 p.m. (PT). UCLA’s contest will be nationally televised on FS1.
