CHICAGO — When UCLA met Michigan State on the Spartans’ home court last month, it turned out to be an eye-opening moment for the Bruins. The game was out of hand in minutes. At one point, they trailed the Spartans by more than 30. The night went so awry for UCLA that coach Mick Cronin ejected one of his own players in the final minutes.
“They took us to the woodshed,” Cronin recalled this week.
“Lit us up in every aspect,” added point guard Donovan Dent.
But those Bruins would bear little resemblance to the unflinching juggernaut that took the floor Friday, determined to show what they had learned. The result was one of the best efforts of UCLA’s season, a rollicking 88-84 victory that not only redeemed the Bruins’ February flop but sent them soaring into the Big Ten tournament semifinals, where they’ll face No. 7 seed Purdue on Saturday.
They did it with one of their best offensive performances of the season, shooting 56% from the floor. They did it by draining three-pointers at a stunning rate, 13 in all, their second-most in the past four seasons. And they did it with defense, piling up 40 deflections during a master class effort.
“We were playing like our life was on the line,” Dent said. “That’s what you have to do in these types of games.”
That UCLA upended one of the Big Ten’s best without its top scorer and deadliest sharpshooter, Tyler Bilodeau, in the lineup for most of its season’s most critical matchup made it all the more stunning.
Bilodeau didn’t return to the game after banging his knee under the basket late in the first half, and Cronin said it would take “literally a miracle” for him to suit up Saturday against Purdue. How long he has to sit out after that was dependent on the results of an MRI scan late Friday night.
Michigan State forward Coen Carr, center, tries to control the ball between UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau, left, and guard Eric Freeny, right, during the first half Friday.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
But to play the way UCLA did without him against Michigan State was “monumental for us,” Cronin said.
The difference for UCLA once again turned out to be Dent’s performance. The night after he dropped the first triple-double in the tournament’s history, the senior star continued his late-season surge with 23 points, 12 assists and six rebounds. He was equally as disruptive on the defensive end, forcing a game-high four steals.
It was a decidedly different version of Dent than took the floor in February against the Spartans. In that game, Dent scored just six points and had four assists and four turnovers. In the seven games since, he’s had six total turnovers … and 77 assists.
“That time of season, we didn’t know who we were yet,” he said. “We were still trying to figure things out.”
But since that point, Dent says, “we have a whole different mindset as a team.”
Friday, in that sense, made for an ideal measuring stick.
“I really wanted to redeem myself from the first time we played,” Dent said. “I think we all did. We didn’t really show them our full selves.”
The full breadth of the Bruins’ potential on both ends was certainly on display. Even as Michigan State came roaring back in the second half, cutting the lead to just two in the final minute, UCLA never flinched.
“Offensively they were rolling,” Cronin said, “but we kept answering them.”
Right when the Bruins needed a big play on defense, Dent jumped in front of a pass from Michigan State’s Kur Teng with 1:10 remaining, drew a foul and hit two free throws.
UCLA’s Trent Perry celebrates after shooting a three-pointer against Michigan State in the first half Friday.
(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
UCLA still needed to hold on for dear life. After Dent missed a free throw with 51 seconds left, Teng hit a three-pointer from the corner to cut the Bruins’ lead to two. This time, Trent Perry sank two more from the stripe.
Perry would have to hit four more free throws in the final 12 seconds, all after taking a hard foul to the head. But as he walked to the line for each, no one on the UCLA sideline even considered the possibility that Perry might miss.
“We’re in the huddle, and they’re saying, ‘You’re going to knock these down,” Perry said. “‘We’re going on the other end.’”
Added Cronin, “In all seriousness, I’ve never seen him miss a big free throw.”
That didn’t change Friday, as Perry punctuated one of his best games as a Bruin with four final free throws to seal the victory. Perry finished with 22 points.
“We’re a dangerous team when he’s playing like that,” Dent said.
UCLA definitely looked as dangerous as ever Friday. The question now, with a season-long win streak in tow, is whether this version of the Bruins can keep it rolling — especially if Bilodeau misses time.
But count Dent as a true Bruin believer.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” he said.
