Skyy Clark scored 25 points, making six 3-pointers, and Tyler Bilodeau scored 20 of his 21 points in the second half as UCLA opened Big Ten Conference play with an 82-80 victory against Washington on Wednesday in Seattle.
Donovan Dent added 17 points and eight assists for the Bruins (6-2, 1-0 Big Ten), who rallied from an early double-digit deficit and then held off a furious Washington rally.
Freshman Hannes Steinbach led the Huskies (5-3, 0-1) with a career-high 29 points on 11-of-12 shooting. He also grabbed 10 rebounds. Zoom Diallo added 19 points while Quimari Peterson and Wesley Yates III scored 12 apiece.
Diallo’s 3-point attempt as time expired bounced off the back of the rim.
Bilodeau, who missed the previous two games with a knee injury, had just one point in the first half. But after Clark opened the second-half with a fastbreak layup, Bilodeau took over and scored the Bruins’ next 16 points over a span of 3:56 — featuring a 3-pointer and a trio of three-point plays.
Clark’s 3-pointer gave UCLA a 57-47 advantage with 13:17 remaining.
The Bruins held a 76-60 lead with 4:45 left before Washington went on a 17-2 run, with Steinbach scoring nine points. Peterson’s 3-pointer pulled the Huskies with 78-77 with 36.7 seconds left.
Clark was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with 14.5 seconds to go and made all three free throws to give the Bruins an 81-77 advantage.
Diallo made a driving layup and was fouled with 8.7 seconds left, converting the three-point play to make it a one-point game.
Dent made one of two free throws with 4.9 seconds left for the final margin.
The Bruins overcame an early 11-point deficit to take a 36-32 halftime lead as Clark made all five of his 3-point attempts.
The Huskies scored the game’s first eight points. Steinbach, who missed the previous three games with an ankle injury, tallied the first six on two layups and a bank shot in the lane, followed by Diallo’s fastbreak layup off a UCLA turnover.
Washington extended its lead to 18-7 with 13:24 left in the half on Steinbach’s dunk off an offensive rebound.
Dent’s jumper sparked a 14-0 UCLA run. Clark capped the spurt with a 3-pointer to break an 18-all tie.
Clark made another 3-pointer to snap a 27-all deadlock and made his fifth with 14 seconds remaining before the intermission.
Steinbach had 13 points in the half, making all six of his field-goal attempts.
