Sometimes you just have to take the win and move on.
That was the position UCLA found itself in Monday night during its season opener, the 12th-ranked Bruins hardly looking like an unstoppable power against a team from the Big Sky Conference.
UCLA’s defense kept getting beat around the basket. Its offense endured long scoreless stretches.
Even transfer point guard Donovan Dent, for all his brilliance, had a regrettable moment, missing a breakaway dunk.
But the only takeaway that mattered was the final score.
UCLA avoided massive disappointment by holding on for an 80-74 victory at Pauley Pavilion over Eastern Washington, which had closed to within single digits in the final minutes.
Dent unveiled an impressive array of moves in his UCLA debut, including a no-look pass leading to a Xavier Booker dunk and an ability to change speeds that left defenders baffled. Dent finished with 21 points and nine assists to lead five Bruins in double figures scoring.
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half and was joined in double figures by Booker (14 points, seven rebounds), Trent Perry (11 points) and Skyy Clark (10).
If UCLA looked like an incomplete team, it might have been partly because it was missing forward Eric Dailey Jr., who continues to round into form from a knee injury. Jamar Brown, taking Dailey’s place in the starting lineup, had five points, five rebounds and two steals.
Isaiah Moses scored 15 points to lead Eastern Washington, which found way too much easy success inside on the way to shooting 53.7% compared to UCLA’s 47.1%.
This matchup was presumably scheduled as a favor to Eastern Washington coach Dan Monson, the former longtime Long Beach State coach and friend of UCLA counterpart Mick Cronin. But Cronin might have been re-thinking the wisdom of playing the Eagles midway through the first half.
With the Bruins getting outhustled and struggling to attack Eastern Washington’s zone defense, scoring became an unexpected slog. Clark sagged his shoulders after missing a driving layup, extending a slump in which his team had made just one of its last 10 shots.
It momentarily got worse for the Bruins when Clark fouled Eastern Washington’s Johnny Radford on a three-point attempt. Radford made two of the three free throws to give the Huskies a 20-17 lead.
That’s when UCLA turned to the most reliable part of its offense. The Bruins let Dent do his thing.
It started with an acrobatic, driving reverse layup and continued with another layup and two passes to teammates for backdoor layups. By the time Dent found Bilodeau for a turnaround jumper, the Bruins were up 36-29 and their fans were a bit less restless.
By halftime, Dent had led his team to a 40-33 cushion thanks largely to his 14 points, six assists, two rebounds and a steal. UCLA’s defense wasn’t as impressive, allowing the Eagles to make 50% of their shots and score plenty of easy buckets against its big men.
Making this upset bid all the more difficult for the Eagles was the absence of guard Andrew Cook, a preseason All-Big Sky member after averaging 16.1 points last season. Cook, a native of Huntington Beach who played at Servite High, is expected to be sidelined for the entire season after recently breaking an ankle in practice.
Even while navigating Pauley Pavilion on a scooter, Cook was able to get some shots up pregame, rolling his way out underneath the basket and making a pump-fake before converting a layup.
The Eagles almost won without him before UCLA made the plays it needed late, including a Dent layup in transition. The Bruins won. Time to move on.
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