Coming out of a messy first half in which only one Bruin was able to find any success on offense, the message for the rest of the night was crystal clear – feed Jaime Jaquez Jr.
That's exactly what they, and the banged up wing powered ahead for the biggest night of his already storied career as a result.
No. 17 UCLA men's basketball (22-6, 14-5 Pac-12) was on pace for its worst offensive showing ever under coach Mick Cronin, down four points to Washington (14-14, 9-9) at half. Jaquez had 13 points through 20 minutes – more than half of his team's production – and he wound up coming through with 17 more to set a new career high and lead the Bruins to a 77-66 road win.
On the micro level, Jaquez's big night lifted an otherwise down shooting night by the rest of his teammates. Looking beyond just Monday night, though, the performance lifted Jaquez over 1,000 points for his career and also helped him take charge on offense with no Johnny Juzang and two ankle braces still holding him back physically.
As pretty as things got for Jaquez, though, it was an all-around ugly game to start off.
The two teams were never separated by more than five points in the first half, but not because it was a back-and-forth affair of high-quality basketball. After hitting their first two shots of the night, the Bruins missed 13 of their next 14.
A 7-of-10 stretch seemingly got UCLA out of its early shooting funk, but there were so few possessions in a drawn out, defensive first half that even that high efficiency didn't result in too many points on the board. Washington was in the same boat – despite shooting 48% from the field in the opening period, the Huskies were still on pace to finish with just 58 points.
There were a few key contributors who were able to build an ounce of momentum for Washington, while it was really only Jaquez who left his mark early on. Guard Tyger Campbell, guard Jules Bernard and forward Cody Riley, meanwhile, were shooting a combined 2-of-18 before heading into the locker room.
Amid it all, there were nine lead changes and five ties, and it was Washington that went into the break up 29-25.
A 9-0 run to open the second half was once again spearheaded by Jaquez, supplemented by a pair of signature fast break layups by guard Jaylen Clark. 15 of UCLA's first 18 points in the second half came from that duo, with their only other bucket in the first 7:30 of the period coming on a 3-pointer by Bernard.
Campbell finally got in on the action too after missing his first eight shots of the night, putting the Bruins up by 12, and then it was Jaquez who got two more to go in the paint – plus a few free throws – to reach 28 points and set a new career high with over nine minutes left in the contest.
The next six minutes were full of a ton of free throws – 16 of the next 28 points scored by the two sides came from the charity stripe – and UCLA grew its lead to as many as 22. After a few flagrant fouls and garbage time dunks and triples by each team, the Bruins cruised to the double-digit victory.
Outside of Jaquez's 30-piece and team-best nine rebounds, Bernard was the only other player to finish in double figures, with half of his 12 points coming from the free throw line. Clark put up nine points and Riley and Singleton scored seven apiece.
UCLA has one game left on its regular season slate, coming back to Westwood to host USC on Saturday. That game will tip off at 7 p.m. and the Bruins can lock up the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 tournament by besting the Trojans for the first time under Cronin.
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Sam Connon is the Publisher and Managing Editor at All Bruins, in association with the FanNation and Sports Illustrated networks.