Donovan Dent drove the length of court for the game-winning layup with no time remaining to give UCLA an electric 95-94 overtime victory over No. 10 Illinois in Big Ten play on Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Dent had 14 points and a career-high 15 assists in helping the Bruins (18-9, 10-6 Big Ten) halt a two-game slide. Eric Dailey Jr. scored 20 points before fouling out for UCLA.
Keaton Wagler’s putback with 4.9 seconds left gave Illinois a one-point lead. After timeouts by both teams, Dent received the ball in the backcourt and drove all the way to a basket with a dash that was reminiscent of Tyus Edney’s famous game-winning layup against Missouri in the second round of the 1995 NCAA Tournament. Edney’s heroics sparked the program’s last national championship run.
Tyler Bilodeau scored 18 points, Trent Perry had 17 and Xavier Booker tallied 16 on 7-of-8 shooting off the bench for UCLA. Skyy Clark had 10 points.
Wagler had 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Tomislav Ivisic scored 16 points for the Illini (22-6, 13-4), who lost for the third in their past five games.
Ben Humrichous had 15 on five 3-point baskets off the bench for Illinois. Kylan Boswell added 13 points and backup Zvonimir Ivisic had 11.
Perry made two free throws to give the Bruins a 93-92 edge with 16.6 seconds left before the scintillating finish.
In regulation, Bilodeau made two free throws to give UCLA an 86-84 edge with 44.9 seconds left in the second half. Wagler then hit two to knot the score with 19.1 seconds remaining.
Illinois connected on 40.6% of their shots, including 13 of 42 from 3-point range.
The Bruins made 50.7% of their attempts and were 11 of 28 from behind the arc.
UCLA lost its previous two games by an average of 26.5 points and was down 23 just 10-plus minutes into this contest before turning things around.
An 8-0 run early in the second half that was capped by Dailey’s fast-break dunk and tied the score at 56 with 14:45 remaining.
Booker’s putback with 13:59 left gave UCLA its first lead of the contest at 60-58. A three-point play 15 seconds later by Andrej Stojakovic put Illinois back in the lead.
Humrichous scored 12 first-half points as the Illini led 50-43 at the break. Perry had 11 first-half points for UCLA.
Humrichous drilled four 3-pointers during an 18-0 surge as Illinois took a 33-10 lead with 9:27 left in the first half.
Illinois led by 12 entering the final minute of the half but UCLA received a jumper by Dent before getting three free throws from Perry with 0.9 seconds remaining to creep within seven.
