EVANSTON, Ill. — It was a sad, familiar tale for UCLA.
From fully locked in and comfortably ahead to on the verge of collapse.
What had been a 14-point lead over Northwestern with a little more than two minutes left was down to three with 33 seconds to go after a flurry of turnovers and a missed front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation by Dylan Andrews.
UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau then was triple-teamed and called for traveling, leading to a Ty Berry backdoor layup that cut the Bruins’ lead to one point.
The Wildcats fouled Skyy Clark, who made one of two free throws to extend UCLA’s advantage to two points with 21.7 seconds remaining.
But the Bruins averted a worst-case scenario when Nick Martinelli lost the handle on a drive to the basket and the ball was grabbed by William Kyle III. Kyle passed to Kobe Johnson, whose outlet to Eric Dailey Jr. left the Wildcats no choice but to intentionally foul him.
Dailey made both free throws with 8.4 seconds left and UCLA could exhale after pulling out a 73-69 victory Monday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Only a few minutes earlier, it looked like Aday Mara was going to be the big story for UCLA.
Entering the game after Bilodeau picked up his third foul, Mara helped the Bruins (21-9 overall, 12-7 Big Ten) appear to take control and spoil senior night for the Wildcats (16-14, 7-12).
Mara finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in 16 minutes. Bilodeau added 19 points while making eight of 14 shots and Dailey had 12 points.
Berry scored 22 points for Northwestern, which was outrebounded by 14 in having its three-game winning streak snapped.
In a savvy move, UCLA repeatedly worked the ball inside to Mara early in the second half, leading to five consecutive points on a layup, a jump hook and a free throw after the 7-foot-3 sophomore was hacked as a result of the Wildcats being unable to stop him any other way.
The Bruins had gone from two points down to four points up and soon an eight-clap broke out in the upper deck among fans wearing blue. Those fans were cheering again when Mara rose for a one-handed putback dunk to increase UCLA’s lead to 52-46.
The entire crowd unleashed audible astonishment when Mara unleashed another putback dunk. It wasn’t perfect. Mara was involved in a busted pick-and-roll coverage that resulted in a Matthew Nicholson dunk and stepped out of bounds along the baseline for a turnover.
When Bilodeau replaced Mara with 7:52 left, Bilodeau immediately made his presence felt with an offensive rebound followed by a jump hook and later made two free throws to give UCLA a 60-52 advantage.
At one point in the first half, UCLA coach Mick Cronin went with a two-big lineup featuring Mara alongside Kyle for what might have been the first time this season. Mara blocked two shots but the Bruins’ defensive struggles continued elsewhere.
Northwestern repeatedly generated open looks for three-pointers, UCLA guard Trent Perry was beaten off the dribble multiple times in his two first-half minutes and Bilodeau was caught out of position on the perimeter, leading to a Nicholson dunk that gave the Wildcats a 35-34 halftime lead.
Fortunately for the Bruins, they had a big weapon left to deploy and a collapse to avoid.
