UCLA will look to follow up its biggest win of the season with another victory when it hosts Northwestern in a Big Ten matchup Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles.
The host Bruins toppled No. 4 Purdue 69-67 on Tuesday, rallying from 12 points down in the first half and six points behind with under two minutes remaining in the game.
UCLA (13-6, 5-3 Big Ten) took the final lead on a 3-pointer from Tyler Bilodeau with eight seconds to play, ending Purdue’s nine-game winning streak.
“I’d have been pleased if Tyler missed the shot and we lost,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “I just want us to fight, man. I thought we fought.”
UCLA received a stellar performance from senior point guard Donovan Dent, who finished with 23 points and 13 assists. It was a much better start to the week for the New Mexico transfer than was last week, when he missed all six of his shots and went scoreless in a 71-60 win at Penn State.
Cronin said he recently had a frank discussion with Dent.
“‘You know, you’ve got to perform, man,'” Cronin told Dent. “‘You can’t stand around when your team needs you. You’ve got to get in there and throw punches. Who sits there and lets their career end?'”
Northwestern (9-10, 1-7) got its first Big Ten win and ended a five-game losing streak by defeating Southern California 74-68 on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Wildcats coach Chris Collins said his squad had a few spirited days of practice before heading out West.
“We’ve had some good dialogue as a team,” Collins said. “What we talked about as we started this road trip was, ‘Guys, we’re going to work hard, we’re going to have fun, the vibe is going to be good and the energy is going to be good.'”
Northwestern is led by forward Nick Martinelli, who was leading the nation in scoring at 23.6 points a game entering Friday’s games.
He has scored at least 20 points in each of the past 10 games, making him the fourth player in Big Ten history to accomplish that feat.
Collins started true freshmen Tre Singleton, Tyler Kropp and Jake West against USC, marking the first time since at least 2004-05 that the Wildcats started at least three first-year players.
“My instincts were to shake it up and start those young kids,” Collins said. “How great did they play on the road? Nick did his thing, and we needed other guys.”
–Field Level Media
