UCLA Holds Off South Dakota 85-82
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thomas Welsh scored 19 points and Aaron Holiday added 15 to lead UCLA to an 85-82 victory over South Dakota on Tuesday night.
Welsh, who is averaging a double-double this season, made 7 of 14 shots and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Jaylen Hands and Gyorgy Goloman scored 12 points apiece and Chris Smith added 10 for the Bruins.
UCLA (8-3) snapped a two-game losing streak and dealt the Coyotes its first loss in five games. The Bruins improved to 6-1 at home and South Dakota dropped to 11-4 and 4-3 on the road.
Matt Mooney led the Coyotes with 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Brandon Armstrong scored 15 points and Tyler Peterson added 12.
Trailing by three at halftime, the Bruins went on a 10-3 run to start the second half and Welsh's basket with 17:22 remaining put UCLA up 46-39.
Chris Smith's back-to-back 3-point plays increase UCLA's lead to 69-52 with 7:59 to play and the Bruins led by as many as 20 before the Coyotes battled back to cut it to 84-82 with 1.7 seconds left following Armstrong's 3-pointer.
South Dakota got the ball back with 1.5 seconds remaining following a UCLA free throw but Armstrong was unable to get off a 3-point attempt as the game ended. After a lengthy delay the referees reviewed the replay and officially ended the game.
The Bruins led 7-2 lead but then went cold. The Coyotes countered with a 17-5 run to take a 19-12 lead following a basket by Mooney at the 8:46 mark. Hands' 3-pointer just before the buzzer cut the Coyotes' lead to 36-33 at the break.
South Dakota, the reigning Summit League champions, entered the game with a 48.9 shooting percentage but shot 41.4 percent for the game.
BIG PICTURE
South Dakota: Entering Tuesday's game the Coyotes are one of five NCAA Division 1 teams to reach 11 wins thus far this season (Duke, Purdue, Albany and Villanova are the others).
UCLA has five players averaging in double figures this season: Holiday (17.6), Welsh (12.6), Kris Wilkes (12.3), Hands (12.0) and Prince Ali (10.4).
UP NEXT
South Dakota opens a 4-game home stand beginning Thursday night against Northland College.
UCLA travels to New Orleans and will take on Kentucky (9-1) Saturday in the fourth annual CBS Sports Classic. It will be the fifth time the two teams have met in the past four seasons.
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