No. 22 UCLA men open season with big upset of No. 5 Arizona
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LAS VEGAS — Trent Perry scored 21 points for No. 22 UCLA, which opened the season Monday night by overcoming a career-best 38 points from Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenkov to defeat the No. 5 Wildcats 84-75 in a matchup of former Pac-12 Conference rivals.
Kharchenkov, who also had 10 rebounds, topped his previous best of 20 against Denver last Nov. 24. Derek Dixon added 18 points for the Wildcats.
Jaylen Petty and Eric Dailey Jr. each scored 13 points for the Bruins.
“We have great people on our team,” Cronin told reporters after the win. “They’re smart enough to understand that the least important thing on the stat sheet is total points. They get it. They understand that basketball is about what you do without the ball, how you communicate, and everything else that contributes to winning.”
UCLA coach Mick Cronin worked to address the Bruins’ biggest weaknesses, defense and rebounding, as he rebuilt the team’s roster.
Petty said he focused on playing hard and helping when other Bruins got into foul trouble.
“Our team just doesn’t quit,” Petty said. “Like coach said, we all have great attitudes. We all want to win and come together, and that’s what we’re going to do. ... We got to keep playing hard because it’s like, you know, the toughest team wins; you got to just be tougher.”
This was the teams’ first meeting at T-Mobile Arena since Arizona beat UCLA in the 2023 Pac-12 tournament final for the second year in a row. They had split the previous 14 meetings, with the Wildcats winning the most recent a year ago at Intuit Dome.
Arizona rallied to win that game and nearly pulled off another comeback Monday. Trailing by 16 points, Arizona came within a point when Kharchenkov made two free throws with 3:11 left.
Xavier Booker hit a three-pointer on the next possession to give the Bruins a bit more breathing room. Both teams had missed shots before Dailey hit a layup with 1:31 remaining that gave UCLA a 76-70 lead.
During the tense final stretch, UCLA did just enough to hold on.
“Look, it would have been nice to win by 10 or 15 points. But now that it happened, and Book hit that three without hesitating, that was a big moment for him,” Cronin said. “We told him in the locker room that even though he didn’t play a lot of minutes, that was a huge basket because we desperately needed it at that point in the game.
“The way they were playing everybody else, they were denying JP [Petty] and helping every time Niko [Nikola Kusturica], Trent [Perry], and Eric [Dailey Jr.] got into the paint. They were leaving Book open. The guys moved the ball, and that was probably the best part of it for me.”
UCLA took charge early, breaking a tie by going on a 14-point run to go up 27-13 and eventually take a 43-29 lead into halftime.
The Bruins’ deeper bench outscored Arizona’s reserves 17-4 in the first half, the Wildcats’ production largely limited to Kharchenkov, who had 18 points. The Wildcats struggled from outside in making just one of 13 three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.
Cronin said despite Kharchenkov’s limited impact, he is as talented as advertised.
“Elite, elite player,” Cronin said of the Arizona star. “... There’s a reason he’s on draft boards so high. He’s as good at getting to the lane as you’ll see. As he continues to develop his three-point shot, he’s going to have a long, long pro career. He’s a really tough kid and a great player.”
The Wildcats appeared to badly miss RJ Godfrey, who is ineligible after a lawsuit he took part in to be able have a fifth season of eligibility was recently denied.
Arizona played much better in the second half, but could not overcome the early hole.
Cronin said the flaws exposed during the win will help his team develop.
“You get a lot out of a game like that,” he said. “We also got some film on our press offense, which is obviously my fault. We didn’t spend enough time on it. I went over it at halftime because I knew it was coming, but I didn’t dedicate enough practice time to it. When you can get a quality win, learn some things, and get valuable film to teach from, that’s important. We just have to make sure we stay humble. We’re headed back to L.A. now, and Arizona is a top-five team. So everybody is going to tell these guys how good they are. You have to stay humble. You have to stay hungry. You have to maintain humility.”
