SEATTLE — UCLA couldn’t stop Washington forward Keion Brooks Jr. – or any of the Huskies for that matter.
Brooks made a career-high six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 32 points as Washington posted a 94-77 victory over the Bruins on Thursday night.
UCLA (14-14 overall, 8-10 Pac-12) has now lost three in a row with three games left in the Pac-12 Conference regular season, and Coach Mick Cronin is running out of patience during a frustrating season.
“I’m trying to figure out who I can build a program with – that’s what I told them,” Cronin told reporters after he could be heard yelling in the locker room after the game. “You can’t build a program with guys that won’t fight.”
Brooks was 8 of 14 from the floor, including 6 for 7 from behind the arc, and converted 10 of 13 at the free-throw line to lead Washington (16-13, 8-10), which collectively shot 30 of 54 (55.6%) from the field, including 15 of 24 (62.5%) from long range.
“That wasn’t a Mick Cronin team out there tonight,” Cronin said. “We looked soft all night, so very, very frustrated.”
Lazar Stefanovic led UCLA with a season-high 22 points. Dylan Andrews bounced back from his scoreless showing against USC with 21 points, 11 assists and no turnovers, while Bona added 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. It all meant little given the defensive showing.
“Just miscommunication on plays, leaving wide-open shooters,” Andrews said. “Those plays killed us and we allowed that to happen.”
On a gimpy ankle, Washington’s Braxton Meah made all eight of his shot attempts and finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Moses Wood shot 4 for 5 from long distance to score 18 points and Sahvir Wheeler added a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists.
The Huskies made eight of their first 10 shots from long range and 10 of 11 shots overall during one stretch late in the first half.
“We let them get on a roll. Just wildly disappointed with our lack of toughness,” Cronin said. “We started it with a lack of intensity. We don’t have a guy who is tough enough. We lack toughness, when people pull our whole card, we struggled. USC pulled our whole card. They checked inside us, and we found out what happened there, this team did it tonight. Toughness wins, people wonder why I talk about stuff like that, it just does. Competitive toughness. After a film session and talking about what happened against USC, we’ve just got too many guys making excuses.”
Meah threw down a pair of dunks in the final minutes of the first half and his decisive block on a Sebastian Mack jumper at the buzzer sent Washington into intermission with a 44-35 lead.
“I mean for me, it is what it is,” Cronin said. “I’m coaching the best I can with this group, obviously preparing going forward. I’m giving them everything I got, but I can’t play for them. You get on the road and you better be ready to defend.”
Brooks hit from 3-pointer early in the second half and Wood hit two more in a 9-0 run to put Washington up 57-40 five minutes in. Brooks hit again from deep at the 13:50 mark and Meah followed an Adem Bona dunk by throwing down answering dunk to make it 62-44.
The defensive disaster of a showing dropped the Bruins into fifth place in the Pac-12 standings, no longer positioned to receive one of the top four seeds and a bye into the quarterfinals, meaning they could have to play an additional game in Las Vegas to try to make an unlikely run to the tournament title and the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Whether this season means significant roster changes are on the horizon during the offseason is unclear, but Cronin.
“All we talked about was, don’t look at the scoreboard. I don’t care about the scoreboard,” Cronin said he told his players after the loss. “That’s not how winners build programs; you care about things you can control – your effort, your attitude, your focus on the game plan and being tough and being physical.
“If the ball doesn’t go in, the ball doesn’t go in; nobody’s trying to miss shots, OK? But right now, you’ve got to be able to do hard things and you’ve got to get guys that want to do hard things and it’s kind of their nature.”
UP NEXT
UCLA plays at No. 19 Washington State on Saturday. Washington will face USC on Saturday in its final Pac-12 home game.