UCLA Basketball: 3 takeaways from Bruins last-second loss to USC

March is in full swing across college basketball, and no game proved that more than the duel between UCLA Basketball and the USC Trojans on Saturday evening – in the Pac-12 regular-season finale – that ultimately ended in favor of the Trojans, courtesy of a last-second shot.

In a game where the Bruins led by as much as 13 at one point in the first half – and maintained an eight-point lead with just under four minutes left to play – history, ultimately, repeated itself.  Just a year and a day removed from losing to USC on the road on a Jonah Matthews buzzer-beater in 2020, UCLA suffered a similar fate, this time courtesy of a Tahj Eaddy bomb.

The loss – the Bruins’ third-straight, after road losses to Colorado and Oregon – now sends UCLA to 17-8 overall with a 13-6 mark in Pac-12 play.  Albeit not as well-documented as other teams’ woes, the Bruins are not necessarily on the bubble yet but are dangerously approaching territory where a loss in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament could cause concerns.

The Bruins earned double-digit performances from Jaime Jaquez Jr. (12), Jules Bernard (11), David Singleton (11), and Cody Riley (10).  UCLA was not necessarily awful offensively, per se – they averaged 1.02 points per possession and shot 51.0% from the floor – but the Bruins’ defense also allowed four Trojans to reach double-figures, with star freshman Evan Mobley leading the way with a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Locked in as the fourth seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, UCLA now has a March 11th date with fifth-seeded Oregon State, a team that the Bruins barely scraped by back in late January by five – and a game that UCLA cannot afford to lose.  There is much to take away from the Bruins’ performance against USC heading into their showdown with Oregon State, however – and much they need to address moving forward.