{"id":200073,"date":"2026-03-21T04:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200073\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:46:11","slug":"ncaa-tournament-ucla-fends-off-central-florida-and-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200073\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA tournament: UCLA fends off Central Florida and advances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0No matter what the stakes, even if it cost them their season, UCLA coach Mick Cronin<\/a> wasn\u2019t going to put Tyler Bilodeau<\/a> at risk.<\/p>\n

After UCLA survived Central Florida\u2019s desperate comeback bid in a 75-71 win<\/a> in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Cronin explained why his leading scorer didn\u2019t play Friday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a good practice yesterday, but he looked stiff at shootaround today,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cI didn\u2019t like the way he looked. He wanted to play. I said \u2018No.\u2019 I\u2019m not going to put that kid in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the seventh-seeded Bruins didn\u2019t need him. Eric Dailey Jr.<\/a> finished with 20 points and Xavier Booker<\/a>, Bilodeau\u2019s replacement in the starting lineup, had 15 points, eight rebounds and four blocks as UCLA held off No. 10 UCF and coach Johnny Dawkins, Cronin\u2019s longtime American Athletic Conference rival, to advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key was Xavier Booker\u2019s play,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cYou have to make up for Tyler. He averages 17 a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins will play the winner of No. 2 Connecticut vs. No. 15 Furman on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Trent Perry<\/a> played a valuable role for UCLA down the stretch, making two free throws in the final 10 seconds to help hold off a late UCF charge. Perry, though, was mad at himself for missing three of his 10 attempts at the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually never miss,\u201d said Perry, who finished with 15 points. \u201cBut I never lost confidence. Just stick to the routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UCLA's <\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s Trent Perry, left, shoots over Central Florida\u2019s Themus Fulks during the first half Friday.<\/p>\n

(Matt Slocum \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

There was hardly anything routine about the game. UCLA missed its first seven shots, then made its next eight. The Bruins built a 35-21 lead late in the first half, before UCF cut it to 35-27 at halftime.<\/p>\n

After the Bruins quickly restored the spread to 46-32 early in the second half, UCF didn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

A three-pointer by Jordan Burks with 10 seconds left made it a three-point score. Perry then made two free throws before Themus Fulks quickly scored on a driving layup. UCLA\u2019s Skyy Clark then made one of two free throws in the final seconds to secure the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have five wins this year where they came back from 10 down or more,\u201d said Cronin, who was hoping to celebrate the win with a late night cheesesteak rather than having to watch Connecticut and Furman play after a late start. \u201cWe talked about it with our team and although at times it didn\u2019t look like it, we worked all week on our press offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was coming. But congratulations to them. Their kids never gave up. They fired in some tough shots, especially Burks late. Crazy stuff happens in March.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the craziest moment came late in the second half when Clark lost part of a tooth as he scrambled for a loose ball. But the Bruins managed to overcome that \u2014 and some final-minute drama \u2014 to advance.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all Cronin wanted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe win and we play Sunday,\u201d said Cronin, whose previous trips to Xfinity Mobile Arena ended with losses to Villanova in 2023 and to North Carolina in the 2022 Sweet Sixteen. \u201cI think it was good for us to win a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might see me being hard on guys, but when the rubber meets the road and they need somebody, I\u2019m the guy, so they can take it to the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0No matter what the stakes, even if it cost them their season, UCLA coach Mick Cronin wasn\u2019t going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[92486,31209,147,92485,28,30,29,27884,5230,67765,14208,11474,7974,14202,13344,92487,92488,22622],"class_list":["post-200073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bilodeau","tag-bruins","tag-central-florida","tag-final-second","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-free-throw","tag-half","tag-jordan-burks","tag-lead","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-no","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-trent-perry","tag-tyler-bilodeau","tag-ucla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}