CTTO
uclabruins.com | EUGENE, Ore. – Despite a career-high 23 points from junior guard Jules Bernard, UCLA suffered an 82-74 loss to Oregon on Wednesday evening at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
With the loss, the Bruins fall to 17-7 overall and 13-5 in the Pac-12. The Ducks, who entered Wednesday's contest a half a game behind the Bruins in the league standings, improved to 17-6 overall and 13-4 in conference play.
Bernard, whose previous career high came in a 21-point effort against Pepperdine in November, led all Bruins on the evening, finishing 10 of 16 from the field, including 3 of 5 from behind the arc.
Wednesday's contest was tight throughout, however the Ducks played their best basketball down the stretch, outscoring the Bruins 14-6 in the final 4:06. After redshirt junior forward Cody Riley tied the game on a made layup and subsequent free throw to make it 68-68, Oregon went on a 7-0 run, capped by a three pointer from senior guard Chris Duarte, who finished with a game-high-tying 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Duarte was also 8 of 10 from the free-throw line.
"I don't care what the polls say, USC, Colorado and Oregon are top-20 teams," said UCLA head coach Mick Cronin. "Oregon healthy, they are probably seven, eight or nine in the country. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to beat a team like that and without any seniors on this team, when the game gets to an intensity level on both ends, is when you're going to find out who's going to win. I've done this a lot and I've been in this before and you know why you don't win. They were just a tougher team on both ends."
In addition to Bernard, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Riley also notched double figures on the evening, finishing with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
"It's extremely tough, but we have a game on Saturday so we just have to keep pushing forward and we kind of just have to leave this behind, learn from it and go forward," added Jaquez Jr. "I'm extremely confident in our team. We made it this far in the season. We still believe in each other no matter what happens, whether we lose or whether we win. We are a really tight group and I have the utmost confidence that we will bounce back from this."
The Bruins, who will close out the regular season with a home game against crosstown rival USC this Saturday (CBS: 1:00 p.m.), are looking to win the Pac-12's regular-season title for the first time since 2013.
With the loss, the Bruins fall to 17-7 overall and 13-5 in the Pac-12. The Ducks, who entered Wednesday's contest a half a game behind the Bruins in the league standings, improved to 17-6 overall and 13-4 in conference play.
Bernard, whose previous career high came in a 21-point effort against Pepperdine in November, led all Bruins on the evening, finishing 10 of 16 from the field, including 3 of 5 from behind the arc.
Wednesday's contest was tight throughout, however the Ducks played their best basketball down the stretch, outscoring the Bruins 14-6 in the final 4:06. After redshirt junior forward Cody Riley tied the game on a made layup and subsequent free throw to make it 68-68, Oregon went on a 7-0 run, capped by a three pointer from senior guard Chris Duarte, who finished with a game-high-tying 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Duarte was also 8 of 10 from the free-throw line.
"I don't care what the polls say, USC, Colorado and Oregon are top-20 teams," said UCLA head coach Mick Cronin. "Oregon healthy, they are probably seven, eight or nine in the country. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to beat a team like that and without any seniors on this team, when the game gets to an intensity level on both ends, is when you're going to find out who's going to win. I've done this a lot and I've been in this before and you know why you don't win. They were just a tougher team on both ends."
In addition to Bernard, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Riley also notched double figures on the evening, finishing with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
"It's extremely tough, but we have a game on Saturday so we just have to keep pushing forward and we kind of just have to leave this behind, learn from it and go forward," added Jaquez Jr. "I'm extremely confident in our team. We made it this far in the season. We still believe in each other no matter what happens, whether we lose or whether we win. We are a really tight group and I have the utmost confidence that we will bounce back from this."
The Bruins, who will close out the regular season with a home game against crosstown rival USC this Saturday (CBS: 1:00 p.m.), are looking to win the Pac-12's regular-season title for the first time since 2013.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Oregon 82, UCLA 74
March 3, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team’s struggles down the stretch
"I don't care what the polls say, USC, Colorado and Oregon are top-20 teams. Oregon healthy, they are probably seven, eight or nine in the country. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to beat a team like that and without any seniors on this team, when the game gets to an intensity level on both ends, is when you're going to find out who's going to win. That’s when you find out who’s going to win. I've done this a lot and I've been in this before and you know why you don't win. (Eugene) Omoruyi is a senior. (Chris) Duarte is a senior. (Eric) Williams is a fourth-year guy. (LJ) Figueroa is a fifth-year guy. They were just a tougher team on both ends. Obviously the turnovers destroy you. They destroy you. They weren’t all against pressure. That’s all lack of toughness. At winning time against high-level teams, the tougher team is going to win. Whoever is tough enough to get the good shot, to take care of the ball, to sit down and get a defensive stop, that’s who is going to win the game. We are just not there."
on Oregon’s adjustments to stop Jules Bernard late
"We didn’t get shots off. I would like to know how many times we turned the ball over in the last 13 minutes. Hard for a guy to score when you turn the ball over.”
on how the team rebounds after two tough losses in a row
"I don’t look at it that way. I think you just have to keep trying to get better. I’m trying to build a program. Games like this tell you where you are at. I’m going to give you the true side of it. Games like this send a message to me about where we are at versus where I want to be. It exposes your weaknesses, tells you what you have to practice, and as a coach it tells you where you are at from a personnel standpoint. To me that’s the bright side. As far as tomorrow, we take it one day at a time to try and improve.”
UCLA junior Jules Bernard
on whether Oregon made adjustments to stop him down the stretch
"We wanted to sort of slow down in the second half and get settled and get organized. Tyger (Campbell) was playing point and trying to get us into plays, but I think what really hurt us was when they started pressing and getting riled up, we just had too many turnovers and I think that hurt us the most.”
on his hot first half
"As a team, we were playing with confidence and we were playing calm when they were in there pressing. We were relaxed and we didn’t turn the ball over. Like our coaches, all of them say when we don’t turn the ball over, we can put enough points on to win the game and then we have to leave it up to our defense to get stops to help us win.”
UCLA sophomore Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on how tough it is to lose after playing well and having the lead
"It's extremely tough, but we have a game on Saturday so we just have to keep pushing forward and we kind of just have to leave this behind, learn from it and go forward. I'm extremely confident in our team. We made it this far in the season. We still believe in each other no matter what happens, whether we lose or whether we win. We are a really tight group and I have the utmost confidence that we will bounce back from this."
Oregon 82, UCLA 74
March 3, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team’s struggles down the stretch
"I don't care what the polls say, USC, Colorado and Oregon are top-20 teams. Oregon healthy, they are probably seven, eight or nine in the country. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to beat a team like that and without any seniors on this team, when the game gets to an intensity level on both ends, is when you're going to find out who's going to win. That’s when you find out who’s going to win. I've done this a lot and I've been in this before and you know why you don't win. (Eugene) Omoruyi is a senior. (Chris) Duarte is a senior. (Eric) Williams is a fourth-year guy. (LJ) Figueroa is a fifth-year guy. They were just a tougher team on both ends. Obviously the turnovers destroy you. They destroy you. They weren’t all against pressure. That’s all lack of toughness. At winning time against high-level teams, the tougher team is going to win. Whoever is tough enough to get the good shot, to take care of the ball, to sit down and get a defensive stop, that’s who is going to win the game. We are just not there."
on Oregon’s adjustments to stop Jules Bernard late
"We didn’t get shots off. I would like to know how many times we turned the ball over in the last 13 minutes. Hard for a guy to score when you turn the ball over.”
on how the team rebounds after two tough losses in a row
"I don’t look at it that way. I think you just have to keep trying to get better. I’m trying to build a program. Games like this tell you where you are at. I’m going to give you the true side of it. Games like this send a message to me about where we are at versus where I want to be. It exposes your weaknesses, tells you what you have to practice, and as a coach it tells you where you are at from a personnel standpoint. To me that’s the bright side. As far as tomorrow, we take it one day at a time to try and improve.”
UCLA junior Jules Bernard
on whether Oregon made adjustments to stop him down the stretch
"We wanted to sort of slow down in the second half and get settled and get organized. Tyger (Campbell) was playing point and trying to get us into plays, but I think what really hurt us was when they started pressing and getting riled up, we just had too many turnovers and I think that hurt us the most.”
on his hot first half
"As a team, we were playing with confidence and we were playing calm when they were in there pressing. We were relaxed and we didn’t turn the ball over. Like our coaches, all of them say when we don’t turn the ball over, we can put enough points on to win the game and then we have to leave it up to our defense to get stops to help us win.”
UCLA sophomore Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on how tough it is to lose after playing well and having the lead
"It's extremely tough, but we have a game on Saturday so we just have to keep pushing forward and we kind of just have to leave this behind, learn from it and go forward. I'm extremely confident in our team. We made it this far in the season. We still believe in each other no matter what happens, whether we lose or whether we win. We are a really tight group and I have the utmost confidence that we will bounce back from this."
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Next up:
USC on Senior/Chris Smith night/afternoon today at 1 pm on CBS.
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