UCLA @ Oregon St. preview

UCLA at Oregon St.

Last Meeting ( Jan 15, 2022 ) Oregon St. 65, UCLA 81

No. 12 UCLA will try to avoid an 0-2 road trip to the Pacific Northwest when the Bruins visit Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore., on Saturday afternoon.

Playing without Johnny Juzang (ankle) in the second half, UCLA (20-6, 12-5 Pac-12) fell 68-63 at Oregon on Thursday night. The Bruins struggled from beyond the arc, going 4-for-24 (16.7 percent) for the game.

Juzang was only 1-for-4 from 3-point range before exiting after 11 minutes.

"It's hard to win when you go 4-for-24 from 3 on the road against a team that is fighting for its (NCAA) tournament life," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. "It's just hard. That being said, though, I'll say (Oregon) shot 24 free throws to our 14. Let's just say I'm not happy with that. I thought there was a lot of contact at the rim, both ways."

Cronin benched grad transfer big Myles Johnson to start the second half, inserting Cody Riley in an effort to get more scoring. Johnson had two points in 13 minutes and is averaging 4.0 points per game. Riley scored 12 points in 27 minutes.

"Myles wasn't as physical and intense as he needed to be," Cronin explained. "Cody is a veteran guy. He has been in fights like this before. And I thought that he could get us the interior scoring. We were struggling to make shots. So I was trying to get somebody who could go inside.

"We got away from going inside," he added, "and that's why we stopped scoring. That was the key to getting us back in the game."

The Bruins rallied from a 13-point deficit to take a 54-53 lead, only to have the Ducks score six straight points to go ahead to stay.

Juzang will be out against Oregon State and is day-to-day. UCLA's leading scorer at 17.0 points per game, he also shoots 36.7 percent (40-for-109) from long distance.

"It's a little bit different out there without Johnny," teammate Tyger Campbell said afterward. "He is such a great player."

Juzang shot 7-for-11 from the field and scored 24 points in the first meeting between the teams, an 81-65 Bruins' victory in Los Angeles on Jan. 15. UCLA shot a season-high 61.7 percent in that game, its best single-game showing since a 62.7-percent effort against Kent State in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Oregon State (3-23, 1-15) had an even tougher defeat Thursday night, falling to No. 16 USC 94-91 in double overtime. The Beavers scored last in both regulation and the first overtime, but Dashawn Davis' career-high 31 points weren't enough.

"We thought we should have won this game," Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. "I am proud, because we found out a lot about ourselves.

"I was really proud of the fact that we didn't back down. We didn't roll over."

He hopes the Beavers can use the near-upset as a springboard.

"The way (the players) responded, I told them how proud I was of them afterward," Tinkle said. "The focus is, let's not be happy with it. Let's push it even further.

"If we stay together and feed off each other, we can turn it around," he added.

--Field Level Media