PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Eric Dailey Jr. scored 20 points, Xaiver Booker had 15 points and eight rebounds to make up for the absence of leading scorer Tyler Biloudeau and seventh-seeded UCLA withstood every serious challenge and beat 10th-seeded UCF 75-71 Friday night in the NCAA Tournamen t.
The Bruins (24-11) play the winner of the game between No. 2 seed UConn and Furman on Sunday.
Jordan Burks scored 22 points and hit six 3-pointers — including one that
made it 72-69 with 10 seconds left — to almost single-handedly carry UCF (21-12) into the second round.
Under comical and combustible coach Mick Cronin, the Bruins are back in the second round — with one player minus a tooth — for the second straight tournament after missing out in 2024.
Cronin preached for his team to hit the reset button after losing in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and skipping the NCAA selection show. With every alley-oop dunk the Bruins looked rested and sent the UCLA fans into a frenzy.
For every run the Knights went on — most notably in the second half when Burks hit consecutive 3s that pulled them within three points and sent “UCF!” chants rolling through the arena — the Bruins brought them back to reality.
Trent Perry hit back-to-back layups that sparked a 12-1 run for the Bruins and seemingly put some distance between them and the Knights.
But, Burks hit another 3 that cut the deficit to nine points with 2:01 left in the game and he made a layup to make it 68-62.
The Bruins converted their free throws and ran out the clock to win for the seventh time in nine games.
Bilodeau seemed on track to play for UCLA, but remained sidelined because of a sprained knee suffered last week against Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament.
He averaged 17.6 points and was an All-Big Ten third-team selection.
Donovan Dent played through a calf injury suffered in the conference tournament and had 10 points
UCF 7-foot-2 center John Bol accidentally scored a basket for UCLA when the ball popped straight out of his hands when he jumped on a defensive rebound attempt.
The blooper bucket gave UCLA a 35-31 lead.
Clark lost a tooth late in the game when he dove for a loose ball and appeared to get elbowed in the face by a UCF defender. The tooth went flying and members of the UCLA staff scurried around to try and find it.
UCLA walk-on Jack Seidler found the loose tooth.
Clark hit the final throw to secure the win.
UCLA remains in the hunt for a 12th national championship.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
