Utah had the crowd, the momentum, and the minuscule point guard that no one had ever heard of to carve his way to a career worth of points in one memorable night.
UCLA let its late game savior do his thing.
Advantage, Bruins. Big.
With basket after basket, one highlight after another, Jaime pushed Jaquez Jr. his team to the final breathtaking finish.
Just as he did in helping his team to recent victories over Oregon and Stanford, Jaquez was once again close to the Bruins on Thursday night after their 16-point lead shrunk to three.
He broke a double team with a bounce pass to Jaylen Clark for a layup. He made a step-back jumper. A driving layup.
Finally, very cold-blooded, Jaquez buried a fading three-pointer with 63 seconds left, sending fans into the Huntsman Center flocking to the exits with the fourth-ranked Bruins en route to a 78-71 victory.
Jaquez punctuated the last of his 23 points by raising three fingers and delivering a celebratory message as he ran back to defense.
“I said, ‘I’m not going home sad,'” said Jaquez, who made 10 of 15 shots and blossomed late in the game as part of a small line-up. “I didn’t want to lose tonight.”
It looked like the Bruins (24-4 overall, 15-2 Pac-12) were headed that way after Utah guard Mike Saunders Jr. -handed Utes (17-12, 10-8).
Seemingly finished when trailing by 16 points midway through the second half, Utah enjoyed such an epic rise while holding UCLA without a basket for six minutes that Utes coach Craig Smith pumped his arm repeatedly when he came on the field during a timeout , as if his team had just won a title.
The only one to be captured in the next few days could be from the Bruins after Jaquez made his flurry of plays and point guard Tyger Campbell (18 points, five assists) made a three-pointer to extend his team’s lead to 71-64 with 2:18 left.
“He’s tough, man,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said of Jaquez.
“He can make threes, he can beat you with a dribble, so if you put a tall man on him he’ll pass, if you don’t guard him he’ll shoot. He’s a hard cover.”
UCLA guard Tyger Campbell (10) rides against Utah guard Lazar Stefanovic (20) during the first half on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
(Jeff Swinger/Associated Press)
The Bruins celebrated their seventh consecutive win with some special guests, former guard Chris Smith loitering in a hallway outside the locker room and UCLA all-time chief executive Gail Goodrich applauding softly as he walked past Jaquez.
With a two-game lead over Arizona in the Pac-12 standings, the Bruins were on the verge of winning their first regular season title in a decade. The possibility was discussed by players before embarking on this journey.
“I mean, that’s why we came here,” Clark said earlier this week. “I know it hasn’t been done since 2013.”
Clark and senior forward Jaquez tried to remember who was on that team. The stars were Shabazz Muhammad, Larry Drew II and Kyle Anderson, the Bruins trailing Oregon by one game in the conference standings. Everything was a downer from there, Jordan Adams broke his foot in the Pac-12 tournament and coach Ben Howland was fired after the Bruins lost to Minnesota by 20 points in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Another Pac-12 championship is up for grabs at UCLA. The Bruins could take at least part of the title on Sunday with a victory over Colorado.
If the Bruins beat the Buffaloes and Arizona loses to Arizona State on Saturday, UCLA would be outright champions before the weekend’s end.
“I’ve been telling the guys all week, ‘Look guys, this isn’t the time to take your foot off the gas,'” Cronin said. “If we lose now it must be because someone played great to beat us. We don’t have to come out, lay an egg, not be ready, not look past anyone.
Goodrich cheered on the Bruins from behind the team bench, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who won two national championships at UCLA and took on the game after a four-hour drive from his home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
If things go well this week, the bonus would come from strengthening UCLA’s NCAA tournament position in the wake of the feud that erupted last week when the Bruins were placed behind Arizona in early reveal.
The selection committee clearly penalized the Bruins for having only four so-called Quadrant 1 wins against top teams compared to the Wildcats’ six.
Wins over Utah and Colorado on the road would both qualify as Quad 1 because the Utes and Buffaloes are in the top 75 on the NCAA Evaluation Tool, one of the metrics used by the selection committee.
Never mind that Utah was without two top players, Gabe Madsen and Rollie Worster, both out for the game against the Bruins due to leg injuries, knocking their combined average of 20.4 points off the board.
Stepping into the void was Saunders, whose speed off the bench caused significant problems. But the Bruins had more when it came down to it.
With one heavy basket after another, Jaquez lifted his team to the final thrilling victory.
One more tack would mean the Bruins have made some history.
