UCLA
14-6,5-4Big Ten
Washington
10-10,1-8Big Ten
Men’s Basketball Downs Washington, 65-60, in Seattle
January 24, 2025 | Men's Basketball
SEATTLE – The UCLA men's basketball team defeated Washington, 65-60, to sweep the regular-season series against the Huskies in a Big Ten Conference game at Alaska Airlines Arena on Friday evening.
Four players scored in double figures to help the Bruins (14-6, 5-4 Big Ten) register their third straight victory. For the second game in a row, sophomore Aday Mara was one of UCLA's top contributors with a team-high-tying 12 points. Mara made 5 of 10 shots, totaled seven rebounds and had a team-best five blocks.
Skyy Clark scored three 3-pointers and was 3-of-4 from the free throw line to match Mara with 12 points. Senior Kobe Johnson was the team leader in rebounds with nine while adding 11 points of his own.
"He hasn't gotten a lot of live touches in a game where the team's going to attack him," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "He's not getting all of those calls – they went in there and attacked him a few times. He's got to turn and score, to make one move and score. Sometimes he gets too cute, and when he got too cute, Washington had two or three guys on him. He's got to be confident and turn to score. He's going to shoot 50 percent minimum and I'll take that every night. When you can't tackle him, and what was happening early was just mind-boggling, unbelievable with the forearm stuff, but if you've got to play him straight up, he's hard to stop. You're seeing it now."
Mara's biggest shots of the night came in the final minutes of the second half after the Huskies (10-10, 1-8 Big Ten) cut the Bruins' 11-point lead down to just four, at 56-52, with 2:28 remaining. Mara twice posted up in the low post and hit both shots, the latter giving UCLA a five-point buffer with 1:11 left in the game.
After a layup by Washington's Vazoumana Diallo, guard Dylan Andrews hit a step-back 3-pointer with the help of a screen from Johnson to seal the win with 17 seconds remaining.
In total, UCLA shot 41.1 percent from the field (23-of-56 FG) and hit 9-of-17 3-pointers compared to Washington who hit all five of its 22 3-point attempts in the second half.
Guard Sebastian Mack hit his only two shots of the game on back-to-back threes midway through the second half at 11:18 which helped balloon the Bruins' lead to 11 points, 53-42, for their largest of the contest. UCLA went scoreless from the field for the next six minutes, allowing Washington to make its comeback.
Huskies forward Great Osobor scored a game-high 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting with nine rebounds.
UCLA trailed Washington by as much as seven points in the first half, 22-15, before making a 16-2 run. Mara sparked the first 9-0 stretch for the Bruins with a jumper. Johnson scored the next five points on two free throws and a 3-pointer to tie it up, 22-22, at the 7:31 mark. Thirty seconds later, forward Lazar Stefanovic snagged an errant pass for two easy points on a dunk for the lead.
Sophomore Eric Dailey Jr. also finished in double-digit scoring with 11 points and five rebounds.
UP NEXT: UCLA returns to Los Angeles for the first Big Ten edition of the crosstown rivalry against USC at the Galen Center on Monday, Jan. 27. Game time is set for 7 p.m. (PT). The contest will be televised on FS1 and available for listening on AM 1150 and the UCLA Audio Network.
