UCLA men’s basketball dispensed with the preliminaries. Three warmup games did not tell us much about this team. Now we begin to learn about the 2025-2026 Bruins. They engaged the Arizona Wildcats in the Intuit Dome in an intense, fierce battle on Friday night. We wrote about this game before the season began, citing the analysis of Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Sweeney:
“Arizona signed the No. 2 freshman class in America, behind Duke,” Sweeney wrote. “The headliner is Koa Peat, a traditional power forward built like a linebacker. He’s a great fit playing in (Tommy) Lloyd’s high-low offense as a guy who can handle the ball, play out of short rolls and distribute. His lack of consistency from deep does put a damper on his efficiency, but opposing teams will leave Tucson with plenty of bruises after dealing with Peat/Awaka/Krivas.”
UCLA handled Koa Peat and played strong defense throughout this game. The Bruins were undone by turnovers and a late scoring drought. In other words, it was nothing you haven’t seen from a Mick Cronin team. Here’s how it all unfolded on Friday night:
Final Score — Arizona 69, UCLA 65
Arizona’s Jaden Bradley, who was kept under wraps most of the night, busted loose for two big buckets after UCLA led 63-62 with 1:30 left. The Bruins did not have an answer. Dent and Bilodeau missed tying shot attempts in the final 65 seconds. The Wildcats iced it at the foul line with under 20 seconds left.
UCLA can obviously play with the big boys, but the turnovers and Donovan Dent’s inability to score in crunch time are two large concerns. Bilodeau and Booker were very good, though their turnovers did play a part in UCLA losing. The defense is very capable. It showed up against Arizona’s high-end talent.
It comes back to a basic reality: A team which depends on defense cannot give up the ball the way UCLA did tonight.
Arizona 60, UCLA 59 — 2:51, 2nd half
UCLA was shooting at a very high level. Then the Bruins didn’t hit a field goal in the next four and a half minutes. Weird game, as we have been saying.
Donovan Dent is 4 of 14. It’s time for him to step up down the stretch.
UCLA 54, Arizona 49 — 7:27, 2nd half
Bilodeau, Booker and Dailey
This UCLA trio is 14 of 22 from the field. The Bruins lead because they are protecting the ball and continuing to shoot at an elite level.
UCLA finally taking care of the ball
The Bruins have stopped coughing up the ball. They are shooting lights-out. As a result, they have 24 points in the first nine minutes of the second half after scoring 25 points in the whole first half.
UCLA locking down Arizona starters
Koa Peat, Brayden Burries, and Jaden Bradley are a combined 3 of 16 from the field for Arizona. That’s one big part of why UCLA can win this game.
UCLA 45, Arizona 45 — 11:37, 2nd half
UCLA is shooting 50 percent from the field, 70 percent on threes … and is tied. That’s crazy. If you had been told UCLA would shoot that well, you would have believed the Bruins would be up by a healthy margin. Yet, UCLA was just down seven and scored 13 relatively quick points to even things up. This is bananas.
Weird game
UCLA’s offense looks so awful because of the turnovers. What’s unfortunate about the giveaways is that the Bruins are actually shooting well: 6 of 9 on 3-pointers. They just aren’t getting enough shot attempts because of their deficient ball-handling.
Arizona 39, UCLA 32 — 15:49, 2nd half
UCLA’s turnover count is up to 14. Arizona had only one starter with more than one made field goal until the 15:49 mark, and yet the Wildcats are up seven because the Bruins just can’t get out of their own way.
Halftime — Arizona 28, UCLA 25
The wheels fell off the UCLA wagon at the end of the half: 3 points in the final 7:42 for the Bruins, who coughed up 12 turnovers, 8 of them from the trio of Tyler Bilodeau, Xavier Booker, and Donovan Dent. This game went from being a Cronin clinic to the portrait of CroninBall at its worst: an offense which gets completely stuck and sinks deeper into the mud than its opponent. Arizona played a below-average and very ugly half, but UCLA sank lower and now trails.
UCLA 24, Arizona 21 — 3:48, 1st half
Look at the score. You know this is a Mick Cronin game and a UCLA pace. UCLA held Arizona to 54 last season. The Bruins are on track to do something similar. Koa Peat is frustrated, and Arizona’s frontcourt has been locked up by UCLA’s bigs. UCLA’s offense has cooled off, but the defense is leading the charge.
UCLA 22, Arizona 21 — 6:16, 1st half
Arizona’s Anthony Dell’Orso has caught fire, scoring eight points to lead a U of A surge. Arizona started 2 of 10 and then hit 6 of 9 to escape its rut. UCLA is still shooting over 50 percent, but is up only one. Game on.
UCLA 15, Arizona 10 — 12:00, 1st half
It was 15-5 Bruins before Arizona rallied. UCLA is controlling the paint. Xavier Booker is outplaying Koa Peat. Arizona is talented but young. UCLA looks like the team with more experienced players in the first eight minutes.
UCLA 11, Arizona 5 — 15:09, 1st half
UCLA starts quickly, holding Arizona to one made field goal in five minutes. This is what a Mick Cronin team should look like. It’s the best five minutes UCLA has played so far this season. Just 35 more to go!
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA basketball falls to Arizona – recap and analysis
Reporting by Matt Zemek / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
