Donovan Dent’s triple-double powers UCLA basketball to win over Rutgers

CHICAGO — Grabbing the history-making rebound with a little less than three minutes to play, Donovan Dent found himself on the attack once more.

The UCLA point guard completed the next possession by flinging a pass to Tyler Bilodeau for a 3-pointer, showing once again all the ways he can dominate a game.

Dent became the first player in Big Ten Tournament history to log a triple-double on Thursday night and the first UCLA player to record one since Kyle Anderson did so against Morehead State in November 2013.

He filled up the stat sheet in memorable fashion during the sixth-seeded Bruins’ 72-59 victory over 14th-seeded Rutgers in the third round of the tournament at the United Center.

Dent finished with 12 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds along with two turnovers. He said he didn’t know he was on the verge of a triple-double until a teammate informed him that he needed one more rebound during a late timeout.

Added UCLA coach Mick Cronin: “Now I’m going to lie to him for sure so he’ll keep rebounding. I’m going to tell him you need two for a triple-double, and he’ll keep rebounding.”

One of Dent’s most impressive plays didn’t result in a statistic. After teammate Xavier Booker blocked a shot, Dent made an over-the-shoulder save of the loose ball while falling out of bounds.

“I don’t know how it got to someone, but it did,” Dent said. “We were just hustling, we changed our mindset on defense, so I’m just hustling for loose balls.”

Another highlight came when Dent grabbed an offensive rebound while falling out of bounds and flung the ball to Eric Freeny for an assist.

“At halftime, coach was telling us we need more second chances because we were just getting one shot, and it’s hard to win games like that,” Dent said. “Early in the second half, I was just crashing” the boards.

Bilodeau added 21 points for the Bruins (22-10), who won despite shooting only 38.3% because they grabbed 10 more rebounds and committed three fewer turnovers than the Scarlet Knights.

“They scored 59 points,” Cronin said of Rutgers before going on to reference one of his biggest coaching mentors. “Bob Huggins 101. You got to be able to win when you don’t make shots. He got in the Hall of Fame that way. He taught me that.”

UCLA shrugged off a sluggish first half in which both teams seemed badly out of rhythm, Bruins guard Skyy Clark missing the rim entirely on one jumper and Rutgers counterpart Tariq Francis scoring no points one night after scorching Minnesota for a game-high 29 points.

Francis never got into a rhythm, scoring his first points on a pair of free throws with 9:09 left in the game. He finished with six points, making 2 of 11 shots.

Meanwhile, Dent was locked in from start to finish.

What it means

While a victory over the Scarlet Knights didn’t move the needle for UCLA’s NCAA Tournament seeding purposes, it sustained the hopes of a deep conference tournament run that could do just that.

Most bracket prognosticators have the Bruins in the Nos. 8-9 range, meaning that a couple of wins this week could move them up to a No. 7 seed or higher. That would be significant in that it could prevent UCLA from facing a No. 1 seed in the second round.

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The Bruins also logged just their second triumph outside the West Coast this season.

That victory at Penn State in the middle of January now finally has some company.

UCLA improved to 2-6 outside the Pacific Time Zone. 

Turning point

WIth Rutgers keeping things uncomfortably close early in the second half, UCLA’s Trent Perry gave the Bruins some needed separation with his play on both ends of the court.

Perry threw a lob to Eric Dailey Jr. for a layup in transition, drew an offensive foul on Rutgers’ Dylan Grant and fed Bilodeau for a 3-pointer. He was just getting started.

Perry raced into the paint for an offensive rebound, drawing a foul on his putback attempt, and followed with a 3-pointer. The Bruins were suddenly on a 14-2 run and in control.

MVP

Dent’s all-around excellence carried his team once more.

He now has 65 assists and just four turnovers in his last six games.

Up next

The Bruins will face third-seeded Michigan State (25-6) in a quarterfinal on Friday evening.