Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Fri, Mar 20, the UCLA Bruins opened up their 2026 NCAA Tournament run against the UCF Knights, who received an at-large bid out of the Big 12 Conference and were the ten seed in the East Region. With this game occurring at the Xfinity Mobile Center in Philadelphia, the Bruins were playing in the Eastern Time Zone following a three-game run in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. Donovan Dent was returning from a calf strain that he suffered in the loss to Purdue on Sat, Mar 14, but Tyler Bilodeau was ruled out before tip-off with his knee injury suffered one week ago. So, with their leading scorer and rebounder down, UCLA sought to take down a Knights team with some good players such as guard Themus Fulks, forward Jordan Burks and guard Riley Kugel.

The game started with a slow offensive stretch for the Bruins, who couldn’t buy a basket in the first three minutes. However, they finally got going as Eric Dailey Jr was the early leading scorer with a swift eight points and Skyy Clark added five to give UCLA its first lead of the night. The lead got pushed up to double-digits due to relentless intensity on the defensive end by the Bruins, who stole a lot of balls from the UCF players and scored some points off those turnovers. The first half lead got pushed up to as high as 13, but the Knights used three-point shooting and solid defense from keeping the lead from getting any bigger. The Bruins only scored six points in the final seven minutes of action and UCF was down 35-27 at the half. Dailey was the leading scorer with 12 and doing a fantastic job on the defensive end as well.

In the second half, a couple of baskets by Booker and Dailey got the offense off to a good start. But after an alley-oop dunk by Booker, the Knights went on a bit of a run. A few made three-pointers got UCF to within three points of the lead, but UCLA pushed it back up with a couple of layups made by Trent Perry. A couple of baskets by Dent increased the lead to 14 points and it seemed that the Bruins would be cruising to victory from there.

However, the Knights refused to give up as after a 14-3 run by UCLA and a three-pointer by Dailey, they continued making key baskets. Despite a load of missed free throws in the second half, UCF did not fully surrender as they pushed the lead down to single digits. Things got a little gritty when Clark ended up losing part of a front tooth when making contact with the elbow of forward JaMichael Stillwell during a tie-up of the basketball. A long bloody cleanup occurred after that incident and the Knights took advantage of a couple of missed free throws by Bruins guards who were fouled in the single bonus. In the end, the Bruins hung on to win as they won by a closer margin than necessary of 75-71.

Dailey was the leading scorer with 20 points and Booker had a strong second half where he scored 12 points and finished with 15 for the game. Perry chipped in with 15 points as well, but could have had more if not for a couple of missed foul shots down the stretch. In spite of getting off to a low scoring start, Dent finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. Only five bench points were scored and one of the baskets that UCLA had was a “team basket” off a missed three pointer as UCF center John Bol knocked the ball into the basket with a few minutes left in the first half. What a difference an “own goal” would make in a game like this. The leading scorer in the game overall was Burks for the Knights with 22 points that included six made three-pointers. Those threes kept UCF in the game along with good offensive rebounding against the Bruins and second-chance baskets. But with a lot of missed free throws, the Knights were unable to pull off the upset over UCLA.

The Bruins will now move on to face the UConn Huskies, who defeated the Furman Paladins 82-71 in a tighter game than expected. With improvements needing to be made on rebounding and offensive efficiency, UCLA will seek to pull an upset over the Huskies as a battle between two spirited head coaches shall take place on Sunday night in Philadelphia. Mick Cronin and Dan Hurley are two of the most fiercely passionate coaches in all of collegiate basketball and their emotions are going to be on display for a national audience to see as both of their teams battle for a Sweet 16 spot. For now, the Bruins are satisfied with this First Round win over the UCF Knights in the East Region of the tournament bracket.