Men's Basketball Falls to Arizona State 83-72

LAS VEGAS – Kris Wilkes scored a game-high 25 points as the UCLA men's basketball team dropped an 83-72 decision to Arizona State on Thursday in a quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Tournament.
 
The Bruins concluded their season with an overall record of 17-16.
 
Wilkes made 9 of 19 shots for UCLA, including 5 of 11 attempts from 3-point range. Hands finished with 21 points as the Bruins' only other double-figure scorer.
 
Wilkes and Hands each converted five 3-pointers, accounting for the team total from beyond the 3-point arc. Jalen Hill pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds and was 3-for-4 from the free throw line.

"Like all year, I thought these guys fought their tails off and fought hard, played hard," UCLA interim head coach Murry Bartow said. "The obvious difference in the game was the last four minutes of the first half, and that was the pivotal four minutes of the game. But these guys have never wavered, they've never backed down. They've competed hard, they've played hard. They've had incredible attitudes. They fought their tails off every day in practice, and I'm just really proud of them."
 
Arizona State (22-9) advanced to the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament and will face Oregon on Friday evening.
 
Romello White led five Sun Devils in double figures, scoring 19 points. Zylan Cheatham scored 13 points and added a game-high 13 rebounds, while Remy Martin tallied 10 points and a game-high six assists.
 
Hands knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:59 to go in the first half, trimming ASU's lead to 31-29 in the process. With the basket, UCLA had scored five straight points and eight of the last 10.
 
Momentum swung back to Arizona State, as the Sun Devils used a 14-0 scoring run going into the break. Five ASU players scored eight or more points each, led by Kimani Lawrence's nine points, over the course of the game's first 20 minutes.
 
The Sun Devils increased their advantage to a game-high 23 points on a 3-point shot from Rob Edwards with 15:37 to play. UCLA used a 13-0 run and twice reduced ASU's cushion to a game-high 23 on a Rob Edwards 3-pointer with 15:37 remaining. The Bruins responded by scoring 13 straight points and twice reduced ASU's cushion to single digits. A 3-point shot from Wilkes with 4:40 to play cut UCLA's deficit to 72-63.
 
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the second half, as the Bruins outscored the Sun Devils 43-38 during that time.
 
Wilkes concluded the season as UCLA's leading scorer, having averaged 17.4 points per game. Hands finished his sophomore campaign having tallied 14.2 points per game and 201 total assists (which ranks among the top 10 in UCLA's single-season list).