On Mon, Nov 2, the UCLA Bruins played their regular season opener in men’s basketball as they competed against an old western rival in the Arizona Wildcats, who are the fifth-ranked team in the country in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. As the 22nd-ranked team in the country, the Bruins had a bunch of new rotation players debuting for them, which included transfer guard Jaylen Petty from Texas Tech and the 17 year-old Serbian wonder Nikola Kustarica. Along with bench options Sergej Macura and Joe Philon III as forwards, UCLA was entering a brand new era as they took on Arizona at the Hall of Fame Series at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The scoring for the Bruins started with a couple of baskets by Trent Perry and Petty made a couple of three-pointers to gain a six-point lead early on. Kustarica got his first couple of baskets on layups while Macura came off the bench and made a couple of threes. UCLA held a big double-digit lead at multiple points in the first half, but the Wildcats were staying in the fight thanks to the scoring of Ivan Kharchenkov. A couple of layups by Eric Dailey Jr pushed the Bruins’ lead to 14 points at halftime.
The second half featured other players getting involved in the scoring as Perry led the way in points for UCLA while Derek Dixon was another main scorer for Arizona alongside Kharchenkov. The Wildcats tried to chip away with a couple of threes made by Dixon and Mick Cronin called a timeout with eight and a half minutes left.
The Bruins eventually re-increased their lead to 11 as Philon made a clutch three-pointer with five minutes left. However, Arizona went on a 10-0 run to get the lead within one point with over three minutes left. But Xavier Booker made a big three-point shot to give UCLA some breathing room and a couple of missed three-pointers from both sides occurred. One of the missed threes was rebounded by Dailey on the offensive end and he banked in a layup to increase the lead to six points. With a minute and a half left on the clock, the Bruins tried to keep the lead at two possessions or higher, but a three-pointer by Dixon cut their lead to three. Tommy Lloyd called his squad’s final timeout in regulation following that made basket and UCLA ended up committing a backcourt violation turnover. On the ensuing possession, the Wildcats had a chance to tie the game with another three, but center Montiejus Krivas threw a pass that went out of bounds with none of his other four teammates present in that location. Following a timeout called by Cronin, Kustarica threw an incredible inbounds pass downcourt to Dailey, who dunked the ball in the basket to increase the lead to five points. Perry blocked a layup attempt on the defensive end and Kustarica made two free throws to bump the lead up to seven. A couple of more made free throws by Perry sealed the game off as the Bruins won against Arizona for the second time in three years.
It was a good combined team effort for UCLA in this good signature win early on in the 2026-27 season. Perry led the scoring with 21 points and three more Bruins scored in double figures. That trio included Dailey(13 pts, eight rebounds), Petty(12 pts, seven rebounds, seven assists) and Kustarica(10 pts, five rebounds). The bench scoring was led by Macura and Philon, who both scored serve points each. Despite a 38-point effort from Kharchenkov, Arizona fell a little bit short against the Bruins. The next five games for UCLA will be home games at Pauley Pavilion against non-conference opponents such as North Florida, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton and Delaware. A good win against a team that went to the Final Four last season is a great start for this new Bruins squad that might have more special moments ahead in this season.
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