It seemed almost incalculable, all the things that would have to go wrong for UCLA to lose its massive lead midway through the second half.
With Tyler Bilodeau making one three-pointer after another, including one that finally rattled in after bouncing around the rim, the Bruins appeared well on their way to a breakthrough against a fellow blue blood that had tormented them in every meeting for nearly a quarter of a century.
Bilodeau’s fifth three-pointer of the game in as many tries gave UCLA a 16-point lead over North Carolina with 12 minutes 50 seconds left Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, quieting a crowd largely swathed in Carolina blue.
Barely a minute later, a whistle blew. Bilodeau was called for his fourth foul.
Read more: After winning one title since John Wooden, how much blue is left in UCLA’s blood?
That created a bigger issue than the turnovers, missed free throws and needless fouls that would ensue.
“The problem,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said, who immediately yanked his star player, “was Tyler Bilodeau wasn’t in the game.”
Without Bilodeau, who sat out the next 6½ minutes, the No. 18 Bruins wilted badly during a brutal 76-74 loss in the CBS Sports Classic.
What had been a 14-point lead when Bilodeau exited with 11:45 left was down to three when he returned with 5:15 to go. Cronin said he did not want to reinsert Bilodeau earlier given the way a game that included 47 fouls was being officiated.
Bilodeau blamed himself for his team’s collapse.
“I’ve got to be smarter,” Bilodeau said, referencing his foul trouble. “I can’t reach in on those or take silly fouls because it hurts the team, so that’s on me.”
Once he returned, Bilodeau contributed to the unraveling by missing four of six free throws in the final minutes. As a team, the Bruins missed eight free throws in the second half.
Trailing by a point with 10 seconds left, the Bruins put the ball in the hands of their most fearless player. Sebastian Mack could not give his team the ending it wanted.
Mack (22 points) backed down his defender before a short turnaround jumper was off the mark with less than a second to go, sealing his team’s fate.
Cronin pinned much of the loss on his point guards. Skyy Clark missed the front end of two one-and-one situations before fouling out, taking as many as four points off the board for the Bruins (10-2). Dylan Andrews put North Carolina (7-5) in position to come all the way back and end the Bruins’ nine-game winning streak after losing an inbounds pass out of bounds for a turnover with 21 seconds left and the Tar Heels down by one point.
“Hard to win,” Cronin said, repeating himself for emphasis. “Hard to win.”
UCLA also played much of the game without top forward Eric Dailey Jr., who absorbed a body blow in the first half and finished with two points in only nine minutes.
“He wasn’t himself,” said Cronin, who pulled Dailey only 12 seconds into the second half, never to re-insert him. “He didn’t play well early and he took a shot to the face, and I could tell he wasn’t the same.”
Bilodeau scored 26 points, only two coming after he re-entered the game. Was North Carolina coach Hubert Davis surprised Bilodeau didn’t come back in earlier given the way things were going?
“Nah,” Davis cracked of a player who made nine of 14 shots and five of six three-pointers. “I didn’t think he should come back in.”
Guard Ian Jackson scored a team-high 24 points off the bench for North Carolina, which has won seven games in a row in the series and has not lost to the Bruins since January 2000 in Chapel Hill.
UCLA had pulled out these sort of taut games in recent weeks, holding off Oregon and Arizona for pulsating victories. Cronin said he warned his players that North Carolina was going to make a comeback given its recent history of doing the same.
“They’re just going to keep coming, they’re going to play faster, they’re going to go small, they’re going to drive the ball, try to draw fouls,” Cronin said of his message to his team. “We didn’t do a good job not fouling.”
One of the worst fouls came when North Carolina’s R.J. Davis (17 points) drove and was fouled, sending him to the free-throw line for the shots that gave the Tar Heels a 75-74 advantage with 13.6 seconds left.
North Carolina held on to win a game in which it led for only 50 seconds, giving Cronin plenty to ponder before his team faces Gonzaga next weekend.
“My teams don’t do stuff like that,” Cronin said of the litany of mistakes in the final minutes. “So, I’m still fighting to get this group — it was the same thing last year — to where we were a couple years ago. It’s hard to find guys as smart as [veteran players] Tyger Campbell and Dave Singleton. … We fouled way too much, and you get what you deserve.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
