LOS ANGELES — In a crosstown rivalry, and a battle of teams teetering on the NCAA Tournament bubble, animosity came naturally.
The Pauley Pavilion crowd provoked that hostility on Tuesday night, constantly jeering the USC men’s basketball team from warmups until it exited the court after the game. Trojans guard Chad Baker-Mazara embraced a villainous role, while Donovan Dent was the hero, lifting the UCLA men’s basketball team to an 81-62 victory.
“I tell our guys all the time, ‘You go to the best school in the world in the best neighborhood in the world, with the best basketball tradition of all time,’” UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said.
The Bruins (19-9 overall, 11-6 Big Ten) protected that environment, earning a result to further improve their March Madness hopes, while USC (18-10, 7-10) continued to fall in the opposite direction.
Tuesday’s game ended well after midnight on the East Coast, so for those who fell asleep unaware: Donovan Dent is back. If that wasn’t clear after his decisive layup against No. 10 Illinois last weekend, it is now. For a kid from Riverside, if that game-winning layup was his dream shot, his performance against the rival Trojans was his dream night.
“The students are here an hour before the game, giving us energy,” Dent said. “Those are the types of games you want to play in college.”
Dent rewarded them with a season-high 30 points, dishing seven assists in a second consecutive game with zero turnovers. After Saturday’s game, Dent said it would be easy to have intensity for Tuesday’s rivalry, and he proved that, going 5 for 6 from 3-point range and 5 for 6 from the free-throw line while becoming the first Bruin to score 30 points against the Trojans since Aaron Holiday in March 2018.
As he set a single-game season-high for 3-pointers in the first 8:30, the net became an ocean to him. He went 94 feet around a Xavier Booker screen for a layup. He faded away for a jump shot as the halftime buzzer sounded, shaking his head as he ran into the locker room, in disbelief of his own hot streak.
“When you have that type of energy, you hit some shots early, it just feeds into everything,” Dent said. “It’s like you see the rim at a different size at that point. Everything was going for me, and I was just feeling good.”
Despite his status as a transfer, Dent mistreated UCLA’s rival from the jump. Vice versa for Baker-Mazara, who scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his first crosstown rivalry since coming to USC from Auburn.
Baker-Mazara dribbled into consecutive 3-point shots, jawing with the UCLA student section while running back on defense. Later in the first half, as he was falling out of bounds, he chucked the ball off the face of Bruins guard Eric Freeny, earning glares from the UCLA players. When he missed everything on a jump shot in the second half, the crowd let him know it, chanting “air ball” at him on every touch from then on, even after the game ended as the Trojans left the court.
The detest toward Baker-Mazara was also a sign of respect, the result of him being a thorn in the Bruins’ side.
“Baker-Mazara is a potent offensive player that can turn your lights out,” Cronin said.
After sophomore Trent Perry, who finished with 13 points, scored a pair of layups in the second half, Baker-Mazara sprinted down the court for a three-point play, which cut UCLA’s lead to six.
Dent answered that, with a 35-foot end-of-shot-clock prayer that found nylon, because, of course.
To that point, UCLA’s leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau had been quiet, but he erupted for eight points over a 4-minute stretch to help extend the lead. Freeny scored on consecutive possessions as the redshirt freshman reached a season-high seven points. Dent added a jump shot to ensure his 30-piece, giving the Bruins a cushion on the scoreboard, and in the prospective postseason standings.
“This late in the year, you’re just trying to win and stay healthy,” Cronin said.
UCLA was among the “Last Four Byes” of ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest projection on Tuesday morning. USC was just outside the bracket, looking in. But with Tuesday’s result, two historic foes located 10 miles apart might find some separation.
