No. 15 UCLA falls to Nebraska for first Big Ten loss
LINCOLN, Neb. — If the UCLA men’s basketball team thought it was cold arriving to Pinnacle Bank Arena, it was in for a rude awakening at the 3-point line Saturday.
While temperatures hovered about 20 degrees outside, the No. 15 Bruins found no source of warmth from the arc Saturday, firing a season-worst 14% from 3-point range in a 66-58 loss to Nebraska.
The Bruins played their worst offensive game of the season in their first Big Ten game not played on the West Coast. UCLA (11-3, 2-1) was 4 of 28 on 3-pointers, its most frigid performance from beyond the arc since going 1 for 10 in a loss to Ohio State last season. It finished the game shooting 22 of 57 (38.6%) from the field.
UCLA managed only two field goals over an eight-minute span of the second half as Nebraska’s one-point deficit turned into a double-digit lead.
Down by 11 points with less than seven minutes to play, the Bruins got within 61-58 in the last 30 seconds, but Sam Hoiberg made two free throws and Juwan Gary blocked Dylan Andrews’ layup to hand the Bruins their first Big Ten loss.
Tyler Bilodeau led UCLA with 15 points and Lazar Stefanovic added 10. Sebastian Mack, who scored nine points, made his first start of the season in place of the injured Eric Dailey Jr.
Brice Williams scored 16 points and Andrew Morgan added 12 off the bench for the Cornhuskers (12-2, 2-1 Big Ten), who won their 20th consecutive home game to match the school record.
The Huskers picked up their second win over a ranked opponent this season and should be close to entering the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2018-19.
UCLA, which had shot up seven spots in the AP Top 25 after last Saturday’s upset of then-No. 14 Gonzaga in the first college basketball game played at Intuit Dome, comes home to take on Michigan on Tuesday.