Note: Bryan Fischer is sharing takeaways on the action throughout the Pac-12 Tournament.
LAS VEGAS — When junior guard Jaylen Clark went down with a lower leg injury last week, the rest of UCLA’s roster barely seemed to skip a beat as the team proceeded to blowout Arizona on a memorable Senior Day at Pauley Pavilion.
It was an impressive adjustment on the fly against a major conference rival, but also one that significantly overshadowed just how big a blow losing the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year would be for a team fully capable of cutting down the nets in Houston next month.
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In Thursday’s Pac-12 Tournament opener for the Bruins, the loss of Clark was painfully evident to everybody from an extremely animated Mick Cronin on the sidelines to the powder blue-clad fans in the upper reaches of T-Mobile Arena. UCLA wound up advancing over pesky No. 9 seed Colorado in the quarterfinal, 80-69, but the performance from the opening tip through the final minute was enough to raise concern for the No. 2 team in the country.
“Tad (Boyle’s) teams always play like that, it’s always a war,” said Cronin, referencing Colorado’s head coach. “At tournament time, everybody’s dangerous.”
The lack of Clark, who ranks fifth nationally with 2.6 steals per game, was chiefly felt on the perimeter. The Buffs were nearly lights out from deep, knocking down seven 3-pointers in the first half and ending up in double-digits (10) for the game for just the fourth time all season. Junior forward Tristan da Silva proved to be pivotal on both ends of the court, going 6-of-15 from the field for 17 points while using his length to haul in six rebounds. Julian Hammond III also posted his third straight game in double-figures with 14 points.
UCLA’s defensive struggles were compounded by a fairly quiet outing from Pac-12 Player of the Year Jaime Jaquez Jr. The senior who always seems to step his game up when the calendar turns to March, turned the ball over a game-high four times and finished with just 16 points. Jaquez did manage nine rebounds, but he never got into the flow of things and looked just a bit off compared to his normally composed self.
Fortunately for the Bruins, others did step up amid the back-and-forth affair that was close until Boyle was ejected with 54 seconds left in an eight-point game.
Amari Bailey might be the only winner with Clark’s absence in the rotation, posting a career-high 26 points and making several high-energy plays to spark runs. Senior guard David Singleton was 2-of-8 from behind the arc, but big man Adem Bona notched a double-double and had a highlight-reel block in the second half that put the stamp on the game.
“I think we’re still trying to figure that out, it’s our first game without (Clark),” Jaquez said. “We got a lot of guys that can step up. I mean, Amari just had a great night tonight, and I’m sure guys like (Dylan Andrews) and Bona are good when their numbers are called, and they’re going to step up just as big.”
UCLA keeps its hopes of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament alive – and a return to T-Mobile Arena for the West Regional in two weeks – by advancing to play the winner of Oregon and Washington State at 9 p.m. ET on Friday.
Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
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