The winter slump continued for Mike Rhoades and his Penn State basketball team on Saturday in a 78-54 loss at UCLA. It was a game that saw the Bruins completely pick apart the Nittany Lions, who have now lost five consecutive games and nine of their past 10 contests.
Zach Hicks scored 14 points as Penn State’s only double-digit scorer with Ace Baldwin Jr. held to just nine points and center Yanic Konan Niederhauser sidelined with an ankle injury. The Nittany Lions were challenged by UCLA, which scored 24 points off of 18 turnovers. On the opposite end, the Bruins controlled the ball efficiently, turning it over just four times.
The NCAA Tournament is all but out of the question for Rhoades’s team due to the rough stretch over the past month. Penn State currently ranks No. 17 in the conference standings, which, if the season ended today, would leave it on the outside looking in of the 15-team Big Ten Tournament.
Baldwin went scoreless in the first half, but returned out of the break with some more energy, helping the Nittany Lions cut UCLA’s lead to just five with just over 18 minutes remaining. The Bruins then went on a 19-2 run over just about seven minutes to take a comfortable lead until the final whistle.
Kobe Johnson scored 15 points as Skyy Clark and Sebastian Mack each tallied 14 points to lead the scoring for UCLA, which claimed its seventh consecutive win on Saturday.
Penn State will continue its West Coast trip at USC (13-10) on Tuesday before returning to the Bryce Jordan Center for a game against Washington (11-11) next Saturday.
