Sebastian Mack’s forced three-pointer at the end of the shot clock came nowhere near the rim, another empty possession for UCLA forcing coach Mick Cronin to throw up his hands in frustration.
It was an awful stretch of basketball for the Bruins starting midway through the second half, their defense giving up open three-pointers and a dunk while they failed to get the ball past halfcourt on two possessions.
And still, UCLA led Iowa by 23 points.
The Bruins were so good in the first half Friday night that they could easily absorb a significant dropoff toward the end of their 94-70 victory at Pauley Pavilion that ended their four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion.
Going back to the clear mask that he last wore against Gonzaga late last month, UCLA forward Eric Dailey Jr. rediscovered his shooting touch while scoring a career-high 23 points before fouling out. He made eight of 12 shots in a strong across-the-board effort that also included four assists, two rebounds and two steals.
Forward Tyler Bilodeau added 18 points and guard Dylan Andrews had 13 for the Bruins (12-6 overall, 3-4 Big Ten), who broke out of an extended shooting slump by making a season-best 62.1% of their shots.
Guard Josh Dix scored 19 points to lead the Hawkeyes (12-6, 3-4), who committed 12 of their 15 turnovers in the first half.
This was supposed to be the start of a comforting seven-game stretch for UCLA that included five home games and relatively short trips across town to face USC and to Seattle to play Washington, a lot better than what the Bruins recently endured.
“In the last three weeks,” Cronin said this week, “we’ve landed twice in Newark to go to New York and Rutgers and once in [Washington] D.C. [for a game against Maryland], and I coach in California. Three times touching down on the East Coast, that’s not easy.”
UCLA’s home arena wasn’t as rowdy as normal, the pregame roll call abandoned with students only starting to trickle back to campus after a recent evacuation in the wake of the Southern California wildfires.
It was no exaggeration to say that UCLA couldn’t miss for much of the first half.
The Bruins made their first nine shots, including three three-pointers, in building a 21-9 lead before Kobe Johnson finally missed a three-pointer. UCLA’s defense also exhibited the toughness it had recently been missing, guard Skyy Clark reaching in to force a jump ball that went for an Iowa turnover and later coming up with a steal that led to an Andrews three-pointer.
Even after Bilodeau temporarily exited with an apparent lower right leg injury, his team kept rolling. There were quality minutes from Bruins forward William Kyle III, who made all four shots in the first half and prompted roars from the crowd when he snagged a lob from Dailey for a ferocious dunk. Kyle finished with a season-high 12 points and four rebounds.
But unquestionably the best sign for the Bruins was the reemergence of Andrews. Returning to the starting lineup after being limited to five minutes against Rutgers earlier this week because of cold symptoms, Andrews quickly broke out of his monthlong slump.
He rose confidently for jumpers and ran the offense with precision as UCLA surged into a 57-24 halftime lead thanks to a show of total domination. The Bruins shot 65.7% to Iowa’s 38.%, outrebounded the Hawkeyes by nine and committed just three turnovers to Iowa’s 12.
They couldn’t keep up the pace but wouldn’t need to.
