UCLA Falls to Wisconsin, 86-70, at Big Ten Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The No. 4-seed UCLA men's basketball team lost in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament to No. 5-seed Wisconsin, 86-70, before a crowd of 13,298 on Friday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Sebastian Mack led the Bruins (22-10) with 18 points. Kobe Johnson finished Friday's game in Indianapolis with 14 points, connecting on 4 of 7 attempts from 3-point distance. William Kyle III totaled nine points and four rebounds.

Wisconsin led the Bruins by 10 points, at 26-16, no more than 10 minutes into the game and never trailed UCLA the rest of the way. The Badgers (25-8) received a team-leading 26 points from John Tonje, who made 9 of 10 shot attempts and was a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Wisconsin finished the game having made 19 of 32 attempts from 3-point distance (59.4 percent). The Badgers tied the UCLA program record (19) of most made 3-pointers against UCLA in one game. USC had made 19 threes (on 50 attempts) in an overtime game that UCLA won, back in February of 2019.

"We don't have an athletic lineup that can just switch and really shut them down," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "They're a hard team, we would have to beat them with offense. I watch certain teams play, and I can tell that they're a bad matchup for us. I knew the matchup was going to be a problem, so we were going to have to be a high-execution team today, and the message was, 'We know we can't try to win a three-point shooting contest'. If they get hot, we can't just grab it and shoot it and try to match them, and that's what we did."

Tonje was one of four Wisconsin players to score in double figures. John Blackwell totaled 18 points, Jack Janicki had 14 points off the bench, and Steven Crowl totaled 13 points. Crowl was 5-for-7 from the field and shot a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Both teams were hot from behind the arc early on Friday. UCLA and Wisconsin had combined to make six of their opening seven 3-point attempts. Wisconsin opened the contest a perfect 4-for-4 from long-range to secure an early 12-8 cushion.

Mack provided a spark off the bench, scoring 12 early points on 4-of-5 shooting. His efforts helped keep UCLA within striking distance, at 28-20.

The Badgers hit a season-high 12 three-pointers in the first half, including four in the final five minutes of action to build a 48-29 advantage by halftime. Wisconsin shot 62 percent from the field through the game's first 20 minutes. UCLA shot just 32 percent in the opening half.

UCLA opened the second half on a 7-0 scoring run, capped off by an emphatic dunk by Kyle III to close the Bruins' gap to 12 points, at 48-36, with 18:51 left in regulation.

The Bruins continued to chip away at the Badgers lead, and utilized a 6-0 scoring run to trim Wisconsin's margin down to 65-51. Kyle III had a slam dunk and Dylan Andrews buried a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to keep UCLA within 14 points of Wisconsin.

However, Wisconsin responded with a run of their own. The Badgers connected on a trio of threes to push their second-half advantage to 27 points, at 80-53, with 6:39 remaining.

UP NEXT: UCLA has gone 22-10 through the regular season and Big Ten Conference Tournament. The NCAA men's basketball selection show is scheduled for Sunday, March 16. The show is slated to begin at 3 p.m. (PT) and will be nationally televised on CBS.

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UCLA Falls to Wisconsin, 86-70, at Big Ten Tournament

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UCLA Falls to Wisconsin, 86-70, at Big Ten Tournament

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