UCLA secures its first Pac-12 title in decade
Bruins overcome a sluggish start to beat Buffaloes, sit alone atop the conference.
BOULDER, Colo. — It was a natural high at 5,346 feet above sea level.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. hurled the ball off the bottom of the scoreboard. Tyger Campbell and Dylan Andrews exchanged a flying body bump and a tight embrace. Adem Bona raised a clenched fist to acknowledge cheering fans as he walked into a tunnel.
For the first time in a decade, UCLA is the outright Pac-12 champion.
The fourth-ranked Bruins got there after shaking off a brutal first half and owning every highlight in the final minutes of a taut 60-56 victory over Colorado on Sunday afternoon at the CU Events Center.
“Great resiliency,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said after his team overcame an early 10-point deficit to prevail despite making only one of 14 three-pointers.
UCLA’s eighth consecutive win gave the Bruins (25-4, 16-2 Pac-12) a threegame lead over second-place Arizona and USC with two games to play before the conference tournament.
A brief on-court celebration served as a prelude to some pulsating music and booming banter in the locker room that could be heard in an adjacent hallway. Cronin instructed his players not to douse him with any beverages given that they still need to win more games to seize the No. 1 seed in the West for the NCAA tournament.
“We were just excited,” Jaquez, who led the Bruins with 17 points, said of the festivities, “but we’ve got to understand, we’re playing for something a lot bigger than this.”
Everything remained in play thanks to the Bruins’ latest closeout special. Campbell scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half, including two tricky shots in the final minutes. The first came on an acrobatic scoop layup around 7-foot-1 center Lawson Lovering before the point guard made a step