{"id":12205,"date":"2025-10-19T03:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12205\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T03:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:00:19","slug":"ucla-mens-basketball-shows-its-promise-on-defense-in-exhibition-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12205\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA men’s basketball shows its promise on defense in exhibition win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN DIEGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The clapping started rhythmically, with considerable vigor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tradition inside Viejas Arena. Fans clap until San Diego State scores its first points, something that should take \u2014 at most \u2014 a couple of possessions.<\/p>\n

More than seven minutes into No. 12 UCLA\u2019<\/a>s exhibition game against the Aztecs on Friday night, those fans were still clapping \u2026 with so little oomph that the gesture was barely audible.<\/p>\n

They clapped through one turnover after another, through bad passes and a traveling violation and a player stepping out of bounds and some sloppy ballhandling in the backcourt. Less than five minutes into the game, the Bruins had forced seven turnovers. They scored the game\u2019s first 17 points.<\/p>\n

By the time San Diego State\u2019s Sean Newman Jr. sank a three-pointer, finally giving those weary fans\u2019 hands a break, 7 minutes 41 seconds had elapsed and UCLA had made its own point.<\/p>\n

These Bruins might be pretty good defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just know us guarding,\u201d UCLA point guard Donovan Dent<\/a> said afterward, \u201cis going to get us everywhere we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predictably, San Diego State made several runs, eventually closing to within three points in the second half, but UCLA\u2019s early lockdown defense and some late offensive execution sparked a 67-60 victory that revealed a lot of preseason positives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell our team, but I was happy they made the run at us,\u201d Bruins coach Mick Cronin<\/a> said. \u201cI wanted to see how Donnie, Skyy<\/a> [Clark<\/a>] and the guys were going to react and I purposely didn\u2019t call a timeout. You can do that when you have maybe the best two guards in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA guard Skyy Clark dribbles during a preseason win over San Diego State on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Jan Kim Lim \/ UCLA Athletics)<\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s backcourt earned that praise on a night that Dent tallied 18 points, three assists and three steals alongside Clark\u2019s 13 points, four rebounds and two assists despite the latter player being limited to 21 minutes because of cramping. The duo combined to make 12 of 12 free throws.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a key to making free throws?\u201d Cronin said. \u201cHave the right guy shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continually attacking instead of just trying to sit on their lead, the Bruins benefited from a Dent driving layup in traffic and a Jamar Brown three-pointer after teammate Tyler Bilodeau<\/a> made an extra pass, giving UCLA a 65-54 lead with 3:20 left and ensuring a happy bus ride home.<\/p>\n

Pulling away on a night that Bilodeau (seven points) made only three of 10 shots and forward Eric Dailey Jr. sat out while continuing to round into form from a minor knee injury made the Bruins\u2019 showing all the more impressive. UCLA also didn\u2019t get much production from centers Xavier Booker and Steven Jamerson II, who combined for seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get 12-plus rebounds out of the five spot per game,\u201d Cronin said.<\/p>\n

The thinking in playing this game was that San Diego State would provide a measure of where the Bruins stood as of mid-October, an entire season ahead and so much work to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the toughest game,\u201d Cronin said, \u201cwe could get without getting on an airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The choice of the opponent was intentional. Known for causing headaches, particularly in trying to run an offense, the Aztecs can make the scoring of a single basket a slog.<\/p>\n

But it was the Bruins who were doing most of the mucking up. They forced 21 turnovers \u2014 14 in the first half \u2014 and held San Diego State to 42.6% shooting, including 21.7% from long range. UCLA also limited the Aztecs to just four points in the paint in the first half before the Aztecs found considerably more success inside later in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them at halftime,\u201d Cronin said of his players, \u201cif we keep giving up four points in the paint per half, we will win the national title.\u201d<\/p>\n

In perhaps his most impressive sequence as a Bruin, Clark followed a driving layup in the first half with a steal before sidestepping a defender for a three-pointer. After Clark came up with another steal, he followed Brown\u2019s missed layup with a putback dunk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where that came from,\u201d Clark said with a laugh, crediting offseason conditioning work.<\/p>\n

San Diego State was also shorthanded, playing without center Magoon Gwath because of an unspecified injury. Brown, starting in place of Dailey, scored nine points to go with three steals.<\/p>\n

His team having shown considerable resolve, Cronin was clearly pleased with the early returns on his latest roster makeover.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got everything we wanted out of it,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cTo come here and win with Tyler Bilodeau making three baskets, like, we\u2019d have had no chance last year. No chance. So we\u2019re a different team, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The clapping started rhythmically, with considerable vigor. It\u2019s a tradition inside Viejas Arena. Fans clap until San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[303,8932,11150,11151,11155,11149,11154,11153,11148,3317,48,52,51,47,50,49,5463,9442,300,11152,11147],"class_list":{"0":"post-12205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-aztecs","9":"tag-bruins","10":"tag-clark","11":"tag-cronin","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-exhibition-game","14":"tag-fan","15":"tag-first-half","16":"tag-first-point","17":"tag-friday-night","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-minute","25":"tag-player","26":"tag-san-diego-state","27":"tag-steal","28":"tag-ucla-man"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}