Lexington, Ky.-Skyy Clark and Eric Dailey Jr. Scored 14 points per piece to lead a balanced attack when No. 7 UCLA cruised past No. 10 Utah State 72-47 on Thursday evening in a Midwest regional competition at Rupp Arena.
Clark led a sharp shooting screen of Bruins (23-10), which was 10-for-24 from 3-point interval and advanced to meet No. 2 Tennessee in the second round on Saturday.
Mason Falslev led Aggies (26-8) with 17 points and 10 returns while Deyton Albury added 12 points and seven boards for Utah State, who could not find a way to overcome ice cold shooting from the field.
The aggies made only 18 out of 60 shots and finished 4-for-31 from 3-point intervals.
It started badly for Utah State during the first half, missing 15 of its first 17 3-point attempts. The Aggies then missed their first four attempts in the second half before Isaac Johnson struck almost five minutes into the second half.
Falslev was the only consistent painter for the aggies in the first 20 minutes and received 13 from Utah State 27 points.
The game was close in the opening six minutes before UCLA went on a 7-0 spurt to take the lead for good at 17-10.
A Falslev organization with 4:26 remained in the first half, UCLA’s lead to two at 27-25. But Clark ignited a 12-0 run with a 3-pointer and 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara ended it with a couple of cans when the bruins built an advantage of 39-25.
When UCLA grew the lead to 23 during the second half, even their mistakes were transformed into wide-open 3-point field goals. A pass that was intended for Mara under the basket jumped through and found Clark on the far baseline unattended.
Clark Triple was part of a 14-0 driving that put Bruins forward 61-36 and looked to his place in Saturday’s second round against Tennessee.
-Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
