March Madness: UCLAs Sweet 16 ambitions thwarted | College News
PHILADELPHIA — The query will stay unanswered.
Would UCLA have crushed Connecticut if Tyler Bilodeau was healthy? That’s what will hang-out the Bruins and their followers for the remainder of March Madness.
Even without their main scorer the seventh-seeded Bruins battled valiantly, briefly taking the lead in the second half. But in the end they merely didn’t have enough firepower to knock off No. 2 Connecticut, which surged late in its 73-57 win in the second spherical of the NCAA match on Sunday.
“My message to our team is no excuses,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “Somebody brought up Tyler. We didn’t bring it up. It’s five-on-five. Sadly, I’ve got a lot of practice in dealing with that in NCAA tournament play, but it sucks for him.
“At the end of the day, someone said to me what would have happened if you had your guy? You never know. But I thought the bottom line was they played harder than us. Their defense was better than our offense, and I take responsibility for that.”
UCLA (24-12) failed to attain the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive season. The Bruins struggled with their capturing most of the evening, going 19 for 49 (39%) in comparability to Connecticut’s 23 for 49 (47%). Both groups had the same quantity of free-throw makes an attempt (21), but the Bruins made just 67% of their pictures and the Huskies made 90%.
Connecticut’s Tarris Reed Jr., middle, tries to work past (from left) UCLA’s Trent Perry, Donovan Dent and Eric Dailey Jr. during the first half Sunday.
(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
“We could not finish at the rim,” Cronin said. “You’re not going to score 57 points and beat anybody in this tournament, let alone UConn. That’s because we didn’t finish at the rim.”
Cronin blamed himself for not discovering a means to stop Connecticut ahead Alex Karaban, who scored 27 factors and helped fuel two decisive runs for the Huskies. He scored 10 factors during a 14-0 run in the second half. Then, after UCLA closed the hole to 56-52, Karaban and freshman guard Braylon Mullins (17 factors) keyed another 9-0 Connecticut run that successfully sealed the win.
“He was a tough matchup for us,” said Cronin, who was hit with a technical foul after objecting to a non-call during the Huskies’ 14-0 run. “If I had to do it over again, I probably would have put a guard on him and try to have our guy that started off on him guard somebody else on the wing.”
Four gamers scored in double figures for UCLA. Xavier Booker completed with 13 factors, Eric Dailey Jr. had 12 factors and Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark each completed with 11.
“I just wanted to comfort my teammates,” Dailey said. “Those guys are crying in the locker room right now. It’s not a good feeling.”
Cronin understood the pain. “Right now is not the time to coach,” he said. “Right now is the time to try to be a father figure for those guys.
“It’s tough on them.”
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