The UCLA Bruins (9-1) clawed back to defeat the Arizona Wildcats (4-5) behind a late comeback and a season-high performance from junior guard Skyy Clark who played a key role early in the game and in the final seconds to help seal the win.
Clark finished the contest with a season-high in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-for-7 from 3-point range. The Bruins were pitiful shooting from deep, going 4-of-21 from downtown, but Clark was able to hit three of those in clutch moments.
With the Bruins trailing by 13 points with 10 minutes to play, they did not blink and put together a 21-5 run to close out the contest and win the ballgame, 57-54.
Clark would play a huge role in the final seconds as the Bruins led by 1 point with the ball and were forced to take a shot as the Wildcats hoped to get the ball back with a chance at the win. The Bruins missed the shot, and Clark would corral the offensive rebound, get fouled, and sink both free throws.
Following the win, Clark spoke on his team’s performance. Instead of focusing on his season-high, Clark gave credit to the entire roster, focusing on senior guard Kobe Johnson, who has been a leader for this team all season and preached relentless confidence to the group during the comeback.
“I’m just really proud of these guys,” Clark said. “Like Coach [Mick Cronin] said, Kobe was a big reason for that in the huddles and the timeouts, dead balls, he was just telling us [to] not give up and that we [were] going to come back, we going to win. I mean, that energy, it’s infectious, and it just spread throughout the whole team and the final 10 minutes, I think we really put it all together. So I was really proud of everybody on the team, came to Arizona, a very hostile crowd, and we could have gave up right then, but we fought back and got the W.”
Over his past five games, Clark has combined for just 21 points. He nearly reached that margin in this game alone and is starting to come into his own as a deadly scorer from anywhere on the floor. The Louisville transfer is one of the best shooters for the Bruins and showed it on Saturday night.
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