UCLA
10-4,2-1Big Ten
Iowa
12-2,2-1Big Ten
UCLA Falls at No. 25 Iowa, 74-61
January 03, 2026 | Men's Basketball
IOWA CITY, Iowa โ Despite a strong second-half surge, the UCLA men's basketball team suffered a 74-61 defeat at No. 25 Iowa on Saturday inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
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UCLA (10-4, 2-1 Big Ten) absorbed its first loss in Big Ten play despite Donovan Dent's season-best 25 points, his highest total as a Bruin. The 6-foot-2 point guard shot 12-for-19 from the field, handed out a team-high five assists, grabbed four rebounds, and came up with a pair of steals.
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Tyler Bilodeau was the only other Bruin to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points. Trent Perry added seven points off the bench. UCLA shot 44.6 percent (25-of-56), including an efficient 50 percent in the second half (16-of-32).
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The Bruins trailed at halftime, 40-22, and by as many as 24 points early in the second half. UCLA cut down Iowa's lead to as few as four points โ at 57-53, with 4:55 to play โ but could never tie the game or take the lead. Iowa led 61-57 at the 3:13 mark before closing the game on a 13-4 scoring run.
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"We would have had a chance, as we got it to four, but we had some really dumb fouls, really bad fouls at half-court," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "There were four off the top of my head. When a team is struggling to score, the last thing you want to do is put them at the line. That was being told to the guys over and over, every dead ball and every timeout. Don't foul, make them beat us. That was the whole thing at halftime. Keep the ball in front, let's see how it goes. I think that our guys were too concerned about โฆ [Bennett Stirtz] hit a couple threes in the first half. We get too spread out and we get beat off the dribble."
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Iowa (12-2, 2-1 Big Ten) was led by Bennett Stirtz who dropped 27 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Alvaro Folgueiras (13 points), Isaia Howard (11 points), and Tavion Banks (10 points) also finished in double-digits for the Hawkeyes. As a team, Iowa shot 46.8 percent (22-for-47) from the floor, 30.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 84.6 percent at the free throw line (22-for-26).
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Dent helped to ignite a 14-2 Bruins' scoring run in the opening minutes of the second half, accounting for all 14 points. He scored 12 of those points and set up the other basket after jumping an inbounds pass and finding a trailing Brandon Williams for a slam dunk. That allowed the Bruins to trim its deficit to single digits at the game's 12-minute mark (48-37).
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Bilodeau buried a fade away jumper then Perry dropped a layup in transition to make it an 18-2 run, forcing a Hawkeye timeout. The UCLA defense was astounding, holding Iowa without a field goal for over eight minutes during the run to make it a five-point game with 10:45 left to play.
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A brief Iowa spurt pushed the lead back to nine points, but Dent answered with two baskets to pull the Bruins within 61-57, with 3:13 remaining. The Hawkeyes responded by closing the night on a 13-4 run to secure a 74-61 win.
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Iowa seized control early, capitalizing on a UCLA scoring drought of more than four minutes to string together a 14-1 run and push the margin into double figures. Clark finally brought the dry spell to an end when he buried a three-pointer from the corner.
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Back-to-back three-pointers from the Hawkeyes prompted a UCLA timeout at the 6:14 mark in the first half after the lead grew to 28-12.
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The Hawkeyes ended the half with an 18-5 run that stretched the advantage beyond 20 points. Perry jump-started a late UCLA response in the closing minutes of the half with a three-pointer, and Dent followed by converting a buzzer-beating layup plus the foul to complete a six-point burst, but the Bruins trailed 40-22 at the break.
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The Bruins will return to the court at Wisconsin (9-5, 1-2 Big Ten) on Tuesday, Jan. 6. Game time at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., is set for 6 p.m. PT (8 p.m. CT in Wisconsin). UCLA's game will be broadcast on Peacock.
