No. 19 UCLA runs past Pepperdine
LOS ANGELES — Freshman Amari Bailey scored a career-best 19 points, Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 17 points and eight rebounds and No. 19 UCLA rebounded from a rough weekend in Las Vegas to beat Pepperdine 100-53 on Wednesday night.
David Singleton scored 13 points and Jalen Clark had 12 for the Bruins (4-2). They returned to play after losing ranked teams in Illinois and Baylor at the Continental Tire Main Event.
Houston Mallette and Jan Zidek each scored 13 points for the Waves (4-2), who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end. Mallette did not score in the second half. Zidek’s father, George, played on UCLA’s 1995 national championship
team.
Pepperdine had an early lead at 14-12 with 13:22 remaining in the first half after Mallette two 3-pointers. But the Bruins came to life with a 19-2 run to take a 31-16 lead with 6:35 remaining before the break.
THE TAKEAWAY
Pepperdine: Mallette went 3 of 8 from 3-point range and has made a shot from behind the arc in 32 consecutive games to match a Waves record set by Terrance Johnson in 2004. Pepperdine entered fifth in the nation at 45.8% from 3-point range and went 7 of 31 (22.6%) against the Bruins.
UCLA: The Bruins have just one more nonconference game remaining, at home Sunday against Bellarmine, before their first dip into Pac12 play Dec. 1 at Stanford and Dec. 4 at home against Oregon. Four more nonconference games remain, including visits to Maryland, and New York to face Kentucky, before getting into the heart of conference play Dec. 30 at Washington State.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine: At Grand Canyon on Saturday.
UCLA: Home against Bellarmine on Monday.