LAS VEGAS — What happened in Seattle and Westwood came here.
Every time UCLA needed a basket to generate some momentum or extend a lead Thursday night, it found what it needed from Jaime Jaquez Jr.
The junior guard scored in a variety of ways during one stretch in the second half of the Bruins’ Pac-12 Conference tournament quarterfinal against Washington State. He buried a three-pointer. A contested layup. A layup in which he was fouled. Two more layups. A lay-in off an inbounds lob.
By the time the in-game layup line was over, the second-seeded Bruins were well on the way to a 75-65 victory over seventh-seeded Washington State at T-Mobile Arena.
For Jaquez, it was the continuation of a recent scoring spree that started last week in the Pacific Northwest. His 23 points on nine-for-15 shooting to go with 11 rebounds against the Cougars included 17 points in the second half, including 14 of his team’s 16 during one stretch.
He punctuated his final basket, a corner three-pointer, by making a three sign with his fingers on the way back down the court.
Jaquez has now scored 30, 27 and 23 points in his last three games, erasing any lingering worries about the dual ankle braces he’s been wearing for a month.
The Bruins (24-6) will play the winner of the late game between USC and Washington in a semifinal on Saturday night in their quest for their first Pac-12 tournament title since 2014.
Jaquez’s latest big game came with a supportive soundtrack in the Bruins’ first tournament game here in front of fans and their band since 2019. UCLA’s lead was so comfortable in the final minutes that the throng of students behind one basket chanted “We want Russell!” in reference to walk-on Russell Stong IV.
Stong entered with 62 seconds left and got off a three-pointer … that hit the back of the rim before bouncing away.
Guard Jules Bernard added 19 points for UCLA, which shot 48.4% in the second half and 47.5% for the game. Andrej Jakimovski scored 15 points for Washington State (19-14), which made only eight of 29 three-pointers (27.6%).
UCLA’s defense arrived shortly before halftime, holding the Washington State without a field goal for more than 81/2 minutes. The lockdown effort triggered a 21-2 run that transformed a taut game into a runaway, the Bruins holding a 40-23 lead before the Cougars scored the final five points of the first half.
Strong defense was needed with UCLA’s Tyger Campbell in foul trouble. The point guard played only 10 minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls and his team’s offense was noticeably out of rhythm, committing five turnovers before halftime just one game after having set a school record with only one against USC.
That made Bernard something of a savior for the Bruins, his 13 points by the game’s midpoint coming after he made five of six shots and three of four three-pointers. His teammates shot a combined 37.5%.
The most entertaining sequence of the first half might have come when UCLA students took a verbal jab at Washington State fans in one corner of the arena who started a weak chant alternating the school’s colors. Unimpressed, the Bruins students responded, “We can’t hear you!”
