Jaylen Clark and UCLA overcome slow start to knock off UC Davis, win eighth straight
UCLA coach Mick Cronin knew his team tapped into something special and familiar during its East Coast trip, which saw the Bruins take down ranked opponents Maryland and Kentucky.
But how his team would sustain that Wednesday against UC Davis was very much on his mind and a theme in the days leading up to the nonconference finale.
“A long trip, get home in the middle of the night, off Sunday — you gotta be able to come in Monday and be ready,” Cronin said. “In the real world, you got to show up every day. ... You gotta be a professional, you gotta come in to handle your business.”
Jaylen Clark scored 19 points, Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 14 and No. 16 UCLA cruised to an 87-60 win over future Big Ten rival Maryland on Wednesday.
Despite a sluggish start, the Bruins ultimately handled their business, winning 81-54 for their eighth straight victory before the heart of Pac-12 Conference play, which resumes Dec. 30 against Washington State.
The Bruins (11-2) went scoreless during the first three minutes before Jaylen Clark connected on an alley-oop to freshman big man Adem Bona. By the end of the first half, however, UCLA found its rhythm and went into the break with a 12-point lead.
“Real teams play when they have a bunch of players that compete when they don’t have the ball, so early on, that wasn’t the case,” Cronin said.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds as No. 16 UCLA completed a two-game sweep of nationally ranked teams in a 63-53 win over Kentucky.
Senior Tyger Campbell gave credit to the Aggies (7-5) for his team’s slow start.
“I just think the way UC Davis plays defense is they try to disrupt you,” Campbell said. “We had to kind of settle into the game a little bit at the beginning as opposed to running our plays.”
Clark led the Bruins with 18 points, adding 11 rebounds and three assists. The other members of UCLA’s big three, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Campbell, put together solid performances. Jaquez scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds and Campbell added 17 points.
Freshman guard Amari Bailey scored seven points but suffered an apparent ankle injury late in the second half. There was no update on his condition after the game.
No. 16 UCLA took Manhattan on Saturday with a 63-53 victory over No. 13 Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic. Here are five takeaways from the Bruins’ win.
Cronin had nothing but praise for Clark.
“I believe in, what do you do when you don’t have the ball?” Cronin said. “Do you play or do you watch? Obviously, Jaylen Clark plays.”
Clark knew that it would be a difficult outing but never doubted his or the team’s ability to find their way.
“I feel like I knew coming in, especially after last week and with it being the holidays, everybody ready to go home and see their families and stuff like that, it was gonna be a hard game to get up for,” Clark said. “So we got off to a slow start. I was missing steals and stuff. ... I just wanted to make a pass or something so [we could] just get it started. I know once the ball got rolling we were gonna go ahead and do what we do.”
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