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INDIANAPOLIS — UCLA needed a Herculean effort to get by its First Four game Thursday night.
They got it from Jaime Jaquez Jr. — and an extra period.
Jaquez had a career-high 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting with three 3-pointers as UCLA rallied from as much as 14-down and 5-down with 90 seconds left to edge Michigan State 86-80 in overtime Friday night at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana.
And for all that fight and grit and hustle and every other coaching buzz word, what do the Bruins (18-9) get?
A first-round date with BYU (Saturday, 7:40 p.m. MDT, CBS) in the bubble.
"Our reward is that we get to play BYU, which is going to be no small task," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said moments after seeing his father Hep for the first time in a year at Mackey Arena. "They were up big on Gonzaga; I was at home watching that game, and I thought they might have had them.
"I think I speak for all coaches when I say it's so nice to have the kids get a chance to do this. When you're building a program, this is a nice step in the right direction — but we've got more work to do, guys."
Saturday will be BYU's fifth all-time against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, it's most of any school from the Pac-12. It will also mark the ninth tournament game against a team from the Pac-12 — the most of any conference in BYU postseason history.
Jaquez, who briefly left the game with less than a minute left in overtime, also had four rebounds and two assists for UCLA. Johnny Juzang, who finished with an unspecified right ankle injury, added 23 points and four rebounds for the Bruins, Cody Riley added 11 points and six rebounds, and Jules Bernard had 11 points and eight rebounds for UCLA.
Aaron Henry led Michigan State with 16 points, five rebounds and seven assists, but was held scoreless from the field from the 4:44 mark of the second half.
Joshua Langford added 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists, and Malik Hall supplied 10 points and five rebounds for the Spartans (15-13), who entered the tournament with recent wins over Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State — as well as two losses to Maryland and one to Purdue in the last month.
But the Bruins have struggled, too.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for UCLA that dated back to Feb. 25 against Utah — a win that capped a four-game winning streak.
The Bruins will hope to start another skid with Thursday's tournament opener.
"The players really, really needed this," said Cronin, adding that "the Pac-12 didn't do us many favors" with a late-season trip to Oregon on March 3. "I'm really happy for the guys … our confidence was definitely shaken, and we were trying as a coaching staff to try to pump them up as much as we could, and get them ready for tonight."
UCLA didn't complete all of its comeback at once, though; their longest run of the game was just 9-0. Still, they trailed by 5 with 90 seconds left before Jaquez drew a foul at the glass to finish regulation on a 5-0 run.
UCLA took its first lead since early in the first half on back-to-back buckets to open overtime, after the Bruins led for less than a minute of regulation. But Michigan State didn't hit a field goal in the extra session until the final 45 seconds, and the Pac-12 upstarts hit three free throws down the stretch to survive the final minute without its leading scorer.
"I think it says a lot about our team, and our resilience we have," Jaquez said. "We knew we had to come out in the second half with a different energy, a defensive mindset, and to try to get steals in transition."
NCAA Tournament — first round
Saturday, March 19
No. 6 BYU vs. No. 11 UCLA
Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
7:40 p.m. MDT, CBS
