(East Los Angeles, CA) March 7, 2022 [From The Editor’s Desk]: The final game of the 2021-22 PAC-12 basketball season between the City’s two fierce rivals took place in Westwood’s UCLA Pauley Pavilion in front of a “sold-out” house of some 13,659. And what an environment it was for all local college basketball fans to experience, particularly those who could find tickets and were comfortably seated inside, along with the few thousand of dedicated student body members who dressed up for the occasion, and never stopped cheering for the entire (40:00) minutes of the contest. Millions more watched it on ESPN’s prime-time featured game of the day, with the “tip-off” that came at 7:00 PM, on a Saturday night at that!

Game Summary: {1st Half} UCLA, with records of  Overall (22-6)/PAC-12 (14-5) came out with their tightly, lazer-focused game plan and began to find their rhythm a bit sooner than the Trojans, Overall (25-5)/PAC-12 (14-5), thus giving them the lead and the advantage for a good majority of the half.  The Bruins were led by their four, efficient top guns in Jaime Jaquez, Jr., Tyger Campbell,  Jules Bernard, and Johnny Juzang. The Trojans were led by their top trio of  Isaiah Mobley, Drew Peterson, and Boogie Ellis.

(HALFTIME SCORE): UCLA  41   USC  35

{2nd Half} The Bruins traded baskets at the start of the period but again found some distance against the Trojans as Jaquez, Jr., Campbell, and Bernard began to hit some key baskets. The Bruins, who had been coasting through the period, suddenly lost their momentum when the Trojans went on a (12-1) run late in the game. Coming to the Bruins rescue were Cody Riley who hit a big jump shot giving them a four point lead at (72-68) with under a minute left. Then, Jules Bernard made 3 out-of-four pressure cooker free throws in the final (00:13) seconds to seal the win.

The overall winning differences in the game for the Bruins were the total number of points made off turnovers that favored them by a large margin of (21-3), the number of team turnovers (1-15), {the fewest ever by a PAC-12 team in a game}, their total number of made free throws (20-28) to (10-14), and lastly, total points made off of fast breaks (13-3). The win gave the Bruins the #2 seed in next week’s PAC-12 Tournament.

(UCLA Game Stat-Line): Jaime Jaquez, Jr., 27 points/34 minutes/(10-16) FG Attempts/(7-8) FT Attempts/6 rebs/4 assts;  Jules Bernard, 19 points/35 minutes/2 assts/1 stl/(2-4) 3 Pt. Attempts/(6-11) FG Attempts; and Tyger Campbell/9 points/38 minutes/4 assts/1 blk/2 stls.

(FINAL SCORE): UCLA    75    USC  68

(WHAT’s NEXT): Selection Sunday, March 8th on CBS at 3:00 PM for the 2022 NCAA’s Division 1 Men’s Tournament seeding and Regional playing sites.

(WHO’S NEXT): The #13 seeded Akron University “Zips” in Portland’s MODA Center, site of the tournament’s designated Eastern Regional. They will play in the first round on St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17th. “Tip-off”  is set for 6:30 PM on TBS.