UCLA
10-3,2-0Big Ten
UC Riverside
6-8,1-1Big West
Bilodeau Leads Bruins Past UC Riverside, 97-65
December 23, 2025 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA men's basketball team defeated UC Riverside, 97-65, in a non-conference game at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial on Tuesday afternoon.
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The Bruins closed their non-conference schedule with a 32-point victory over the visiting Highlanders (6-8). UCLA led at halftime, 45-32, and never trailed in the contest.
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Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau scored a career-high 34 points for UCLA (10-3), which recorded its third consecutive win. Bilodeau made 12 of 19 shots and grabbed seven rebounds. In addition, Skyy Clark and Trent Perry each scored 14 points for the Bruins.
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UC Riverside's Osiris Grady scored a team-leading 20 points, connecting on 8 of 12 shots and 4 of 5 free throws. Grady was one of three UC Riverside players to have scored at least 10 points, along with BJ Kolly (12 points) and Marqui Worthy Jr. (11 points).
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Eric Dailey Jr. finished with 13 points and a team-leading nine rebounds for UCLA.
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"I think you have to get your best players on the court, by any means," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "I played Skyy too much and I didn't get Donovan enough minutes, but I knew we were going to win. I was trying to balance minutes a little bit better. I wanted to make sure I got Trent over 20 minutes today."
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The Bruins finished with more than 90 points for the third consecutive game, marking the first time since the start of the 2018-19 campaign in which UCLA logged at least 90 points in three straight contests. UCLA shot 50 percent from the field against UC Riverside, going 34-for-68 overall and 7-for-21 from 3-point distance.
Bilodeau became the second UCLA player to have reached the 30-point plateau in as many games, as Skyy Clark recorded a season-best 30 points last Friday in UCLA's 108-87 win over Cal Poly.
The Bruins extended their advantage to 27 points when Perry fed Dailey Jr. for the slam dunk, pushing the Bruins to 87-60 with just under five minutes to play. UCLA had pushed its margin up to 20 points, courtesy of an 8-0 scoring run, with 11:34 to play. Bilodeau hit a 3-point shot to send UCLA ahead, 72-52, at the 11:34 mark.
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Earlier in the second half, UC Riverside had used a scoring run to cut its deficit to 12 points, at 62-50, with 13:45 remaining in the game. Bilodeau helped to stop that scoring run after hitting a pair of free throws.
UCLA created and-one opportunities on three straight possessions, four minutes into the second half. Dailey Jr. and Xavier Booker both were fouled in the act of shooting. They made the basket and converted the ensuing free throw attempts. Dent also finished at the rim and helped UCLA secured a 62-42 advantage with 15:35 to play.
The Bruins led UC Riverside at halftime, 45-34. Bilodeau paced UCLA with 13 points in the opening half (5-of-9 shooting).
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Perry had a strong first half for UCLA, scoring nine points and dishing five assists before the intermission. He finished the game with 14 points, seven assists (no turnovers) and three rebounds in nearly 24 minutes off the bench.
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Jamar Brown led UCLA with four steals. The fifth-year senior from Chandler, Ariz., had four points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes.
The Bruins will return to action at Iowa on Saturday, Jan. 3. Game time at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is scheduled for 3 p.m. PT (5 p.m. CT, in Iowa). UCLA's next two games โ at Iowa and at Wisconsin โ will be streamed live on Peacock.
Game Notes: The Bruins have won three consecutive games, having averaged 98.3 points in those contests โฆ Tyler Bilodeau has shot 60.5 percent from the field and has averaged 25.3 points in UCLA's past three games โฆ Bilodeau has made each of his last 22 free throw attempts โฆ Bilodeau has scored at least 20 points in five games this season โฆ Skyy Clark has averaged 20.7 points in the last three games, shooting 48.0 percent from 3-point range in the three-game span (12-for-25) โฆ Clark has totaled 947 career points over four college seasons and currently stands just 53 points shy of the 1,000-career point plateau โฆ Trent Perry has registered 30 assists and 14 turnovers in all 12 games, logging an assist-turnover ratio of 2.14 this season โฆ the Bruins have made 66 of 77 free throw attempts in the last three games (85.7%).
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