Early in Arizona's game against UCLA on Thursday night it looked like the Wildcats were set for some redemption after an earlier loss to the Bruins, but that feeling eventually fated and UA found itself playing from behind at Pauley Pavilion. The end result was the Wildcats' fifth consecutive loss to UCLA as the Bruins ended up on top, 74-60.
An early eight-point lead kept Arizona (14-8, 8-8 Pac-12) in front for most of the first half with the Bruins not achieving their first lead until the 2:12 mark. The two teams battled it out to open the second half, but a 15-2 run over a five minute span proved to be too much for UA to overcome.
Arizona was only able to pull the game within five points from when the Bruins built their 10-point lead with 12:04 to play.
The Wildcats had issues taking control on both ends of the floor, but the team's inability to score points in the second half proved especially costly. Thursday's game was one of only two matchups in which Arizona was held to 60 points or fewer this season.
Still, it was the defensive end of the floor that concerned head coach Sean Miller most when reflecting on his team's performance in the second half Thursday night.
"We could not stop them," he said. "... We have a tough time matching up with them. We really do. The game doesn't feel like it because the first half, obviously, was back and forth and we didn't play well at the start of the second half. For about 24 minutes it was kind of UCLA, Arizona even but their offense just overwhelmed our defense.
"I wish I had more of an answer, but their personnel and Jaime Jaquez is really a tough matchup for our team. I thought Jaime's second half was terrific."
Jaquez had 17 points in the second half with eight makes on nine shot attempts to help him eventually finish with a game-high 25 points for the Bruins.
While the Wildcats' defense allowed Jaquez and point guard Tyger Campbell to have bounce-back performances in the game on Thursday, UA went cold in the second half outside of point guard James Akinjo who had 14 of his 21 points in the last 17 minutes of the game.
"Our turnovers really hurt us," Miller said. "I know I harp on that quite a bit, but we just had some really poor turnovers. Sixteen turnovers coupled with how they performed on offense made the final score what it was. When you're playing against a team like them, especially their offense and their efficiency and some of the problems we have against them, you gotta be really smart, take care of the basketball and we really didn't have a good night on offense either. And I credit UCLA."
The Bruins (15-5, 11-3) held an edge of 18-4 in points off turnovers in the game.
Akinjo and freshman forward Azuolas Tubelis paced the Wildcats throughout the night with Tubelis carrying the scoring load early in the game. He scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half plus he grabbed a team-high eight rebounds to go with two blocks.
Outside of that duo six Arizona players scored, but power forward Jordan Brown was the only player to score more than one basket among that group. UA's perimeter players, in particular, had issues getting the ball in the basket with Bennedict Mathurin (2), Kerr Kriisa (3), Dalen Terry (2) and Terrell Brown Jr. (5) accounting for just 12 points as a group.
"They just played tough," Brown said of the Bruins, which limited the Wildcats to just 29 points in the second half. "They played hard, and they didn't give in when we got a run."
Now the Wildcats will turn their attention to the top team in the Pac-12 as they head to USC this Saturday for a meeting with the Trojans. Tip off for that game is set for 4 p.m. MST at Galen Center.
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