March Madness: No. 4 UCLA keeps dancing; Bruins down No. 5 St. Mary's, 72-56
The dream is still alive for the UCLA Bruins, who kept their season alive with a victory over the St. Mary's Gaels Saturday afternoon.
Despite a quick start from St. Mary's, which saw the Bruins go down 20-11 in the first eight minutes of play, UCLA was able to quickly bounce back thanks to Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Jaquez, who's eight points in that time span on six-of-nine shooting kept the Bruins somewhat up to pace with the Gaels.
A timeout just after the 12th minute passed, accompanied by an impassioned speech from head coach Mick Cronin immediately made a difference, as the Bruins defense locked-down, fueling a comeback which saw them storm back to take the lead, 24-22 with 6:30 left in the first half.
They finished on a 19-7 run to send the game into halftime, 36-29.
Jaquez, who averages 14 points a game, finished the first half with 15 points to lead all scorers.
Logan Johnson from St. Mary's, who formerly played under Cronin at University of Cincinnati, had three first half three-pointers to lead the Gaels in scoring. He earned a special nod from Cronin at the half due to their history together.
With 6:58 left in the second half, the Bruins suffered an injury scare when Jaquez Jr. went down with an ankle injury, which prevented him from returning to the game.
Despite missing one of their stars, UCLA continued their high-powered offensive output scoring 14 points to the Gaels' two.
Johnny Juzang showed out in the second half, putting up 12 of his 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, but not to be outdone by Tyger Campbell, who led all Bruins scorers with 16 points.
The Bruins were all but light's out on offense, shooting 56.5% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range. After switching gears midway through the first half, their defense also played up to its full potential, keeping the Gaels to just 41.7% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc.
St. Mary's had four players score in the double-digits, led by Johnson's 18, Matthias Tass' 14 and 11 each from Tommy Kuhse and Alex Ducas.
UCLA will now go on to take on University of North Carolina in the Sweet 16. The Tar Heels are coming fresh off of an upset over No. 1 Baylor early Saturday, which knocked out both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in their portion of the bracket, opening a run from a possible cinderella team to continue deep into tourney play.