(East Los Angeles, CA) March 23, 2022 [From The Editor’s Desk]: The NCAA’s Eastern Region #4 seed, the UCLA Bruins, now (27-7), led by their fiery, determined, and committed Head Coach, Mick Cronin, are making their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament’s “Sweet Sixteen“ bracket this week, due to their gritty full-game offense and second-half “lock-down” defensive mind-set against the St. Mary’s College “Gaels.” Due to those game accomplishments, they outlasted their second round opponent, and representatives of the West Coast Conference (WCC). The win triggered their passage on to the “Sweet 16” this coming Friday.

(Game Recap): {1st Half} The Bruins were a bit staggered by the ultra-quick start by St. Mary’s. Fortunately, the string of extremely well-played games by #24/JR/Jaime Jaquez, Jr. continued on “auto-pilot” as he accounted for the Blue & Gold’s first (6) points of the contest. Spreading the offense around during the rest of the period, the Bruins were bolstered by points coming from Jules Bernard, Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez, Jr., Cody Riley, and Johnny Juzang as the “points in the paint” added up to (14) in the period.The Bruins were also credited with a (9-0) run while not committing a single turnover themselves. The Bruins defense held the Gaels in “deep freeze” mode while forcing (4) turnovers. Thus giving them some distance prior to the end of the half. 

(HALFTIME SCORE):  UCLA  36    St.Mary’s  29

{2nd HALF} The raw and truthful fact of the matter was that if there was no “clear-cut” margin of victory down the homestretch of this game, the end of the Road to the Final Four, could come to a quick end. Simply put…“win or go home” in four well-memorized words from everyone who has played in this type of tournament. And so, we can only surmise that Coach Cronin must have emphatically stressed that theme, in pre-game discussions with his players, and most obviously, during his halftime “Pep talk.” To start the half, the tempo of the game now picked up due to the urgency of both teams’ situational awareness.

Back to the game action and both teams started to feel their normal offensive rhythms which resulted in the trading of baskets. For the Bruins, the re-emergence of Juzang’s explosive scoring, coupled with some big three-point shots by Bernard, and the steady play of Riley and Campbell were all needed. The score with (10:51 ) left was UCLA  50, St. Mary’s 44. 

With a (10) point lead at the (6:58 ) mark, it was instant bad news for the Bruins as leading scorer in these first two games, Jaquez, Jr., went down with a badly twisted ankle, causing Coach Cronin to shuffle his line-up a bit. The moves produced good solutions to the Bruins issues at that time. They rode their wave of offense, led by Juzang, Bernard, Riley, and Campbell all  created more momentum into the final stretch of the game, going into a critical “lock-down” mode while holding off the “Gaels” open-look 3 point perimeter shots, and allowing only several  jump shots and interior drives for scores. With (4:00) minutes left, the Bruins had a (64-51) lead and were dead-set on maintaining it for the remainder of the game. And that they did as Riley made a “clutch” 3-pointer with just under (3:00) minutes left in the game for a (69-51) score. This more than sealed the victory for UCLA, giving a huge “Fait accompli” – “Mission Accomplished” for Coach Cronin and the Team as they headed home to prepare for the Eastern Region’s “Sweet Sixteen” Semifinal bracket play.

(FINAL SCORE): UCLA  72  (27-7)   St. Mary’s College  56

(Bruins Game Stats): Tyger Campbell/16 points/3 rebs/4 assists; Jaime Jaquez, Jr./15 pts/2 assists; Johnny Juzang/14 pts/8 rebs/; and Jules Bernard/14 pts/5 rebs/4 assists/1 stl; and Cody Riley/9 pts/5 rebs/1 stl.

(NEXT UP): In the Eastern Regional, the #8 seed, North Carolina Tar Heels, (26-9), Friday, March 25th with tip-off set for 6:30 PM in Philadelphia, PA at the Wells Fargo Arena. Also in this bracket are St. Peter’s #15 seed and Purdue the #3 seed.

(FOR BROADCAST COVERAGE): To watch, go to CBS, local Ch. 2. To listen: go to Radio 570 AM. Tip-off is slated for 6:30 PT