The Buckeyes battled, but their NCAA Tournament hopes are officially on life support.
The Ohio State men’s basketball team (15-13 overall, 7-10 conference) lost to the UCLA Bruins (20-8 overall, 11-6 conference), 69-61, on Sunday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.
This was UCLA head coach Mick Cronin’s 500th career win, and it came on the day they honored the legendary Bill Walton by handing out tie-dye shirts to the crowd.
The Buckeyes have the flu bug going around. Center Aaron Bradshaw and walk-on Colby Baumann missed the second game in a row, and John Mobley Jr. and Sean Stewart were questionable. However, after going through warmups, they were announced as starters and were ready to go for tipoff.
UCLA got the scoring started, hitting three of its first five shots to take an 8-4 lead. The Buckeyes made the score 8-7 and we were stuck on that number for a while. From 16:20 to 12:00 in the first half, no points were scored, and the teams combined to go 0-for-18 from the floor.
With 9:38 left in the first half, UCLA starting point guard Skyy Clark rolled his ankle and went back to the locker room for the Bruins. He would return five minutes later but did not score in the first half.
The Bruins made a basket to go up 13-12, breaking a 1-for-13 shooting stretch with 9:25 left in the first half.
After some back-and-forth made baskets and a lot of missed baskets, UCLA led Ohio State 28-24 at the half. Ohio State was 9-for-33 from the field (27 percent) and 3-for-12 from three-point range, and UCLA shot 11-for-34 (32 percent) and 4-for-13 from three-point range. Of the combined seven made three-pointers, four came from Dailey and Thornton.
Eric Dailey for UCLA and Bruce Thornton for Ohio State led both teams at the half. Dailey recorded 11 points on 4-for-9 from the field and 2-for-4 from three-point range, and Thornton recorded 10 points on 4-for-8 from the field and 2-for-4 from three-point range.
In the last game against Northwestern, Ohio State shot a season-low 32 percent from the field. Against UCLA, they shot 27 percent in the first half.
The Buckeyes got a three-point play from Austin Parks to start the second half, but the Bruins answered with a three-pointer from Dailey. John Mobley recorded his first points of the game to bring Ohio State within one, but Dailey answered again to make the score 33-30.
UCLA took a 39-30 lead into the under-16 media timeout, but a Ques Glover layup and two free-throws from Micah Parrish saw the Bruin lead go from nine to five. UCLA went on a small run over the next five minutes to take a 44-35 lead.
The Buckeyes did a good job of keeping it close with their defense and forcing turnovers, but the jump shots would not fall, and UCLA took a 57-48 lead into the under-4-minute timeout.
UCLA continued to suffocate the Buckeyes, taking a 62-51 lead with two minutes left in the game. Parrish recorded an and-one to cut the deficit to eight points with 2:01 remaining.
Clark knocked down a step-back three to ice the game and give the Bruins a 65-56 lead with 40 seconds remaining and UCLA won 69-61.
Thornton led the Buckeyes with a game-high 21 points, and Parrish added 12. Dailey recorded 20 points, and Aday Mara added 10 points for UCLA.
Next Up
The Buckeyes will look to get back on track and salvage their season with another West Coast road game, this time against USC at 10:30 E.T. on Big Ten Network. The Trojans are 14-12 overall and 6-9 in conference thus far and have lost each of their last two games.