Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored a team-leading 23 points and finished with eight rebounds as the No. 4 UCLA men's basketball team defeated Utah, 78-71, before 8,497 at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in a Pac-12 game on Thursday night.

Jaquez Jr. scored 20 or more points for the fourth consecutive game, connecting on 10 of 15 shots from the field and both of his 3-point shot attempts. He led the Bruins (24-4, 15-2 Pac-12) with eight rebounds and tallied three assists.
 
Tyger Campbell had 18 points, five assists and two steals. The 5-foot-11 guard from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, made 3-of-4 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc, including a critical 3-pointer with 2:16 to play in the second half that pushed UCLA's 68-64 advantage to seven points.
 
Utah's Mike Saunders Jr. scored 25 points off the bench, knocking down 3-of-6 attempts from 3-point distance. Saunders Jr. was 10-for-17 shooting from the field in just under 24 minutes.
 
The Bruins extended their winning streak to seven games and have won 21 of their last 23 contests. In addition, UCLA logged its seventh consecutive victory over Utah, a streak in the all-time series that began during the 2019-20 season.
 
Jaquez Jr. scored seven of UCLA's nine points during a late stretch in the second half as the Bruins withstood a comeback attempt by the Runnin' Utes. He sank back-to-back baskets at the 3:58 and 3:14 marks, sending the Bruins ahead by seven points and by six points, respectively.
 
Campbell nailed a key 3-point basket with 2:18 to play, and Jaquez Jr.'s triple at the 1:03 mark put UCLA ahead of Utah, 74-64.
 
"He's tough, man," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach, referring to Jaquez Jr. "He can make threes. He can beat you off the dribble. You put a tall guy on him and he goes by, you don't guard him and he knocks in a shot. He's got the pull-up, and he's just a tough cover."
 
UCLA led at halftime by a 43-31 margin after having made 61.3 percent of its shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes. The Bruins pushed their cushion to as many as 16 points with under 11 minutes to play. A fast-break basket from Jaquez Jr. with 10:46 to play in the game sent UCLA ahead by a 61-46 margin.
 
From that point, Utah used a 14-1 scoring run to trim UCLA's advantage to just three points – at 62-59 with 5:11 remaining. The Runnin Utes' never closed the gap to any fewer than three points.
 
UCLA, at 15-2 in the Pac-12 Conference, maintains a two-game lead over Arizona (13-4 in the Pac-12) with just three regular-season games remaining. The Bruins can clinch a share of the Pac-12's regular-season crown with a win on Sunday at Colorado.
 
In all, the Bruins received baskets from eight players on Thursday night at the Huntsman Center. Dylan Andrews was the only other UCLA player to score in double figures, as the freshman guard finished with 10 points and two rebounds. Andrew was 4-for-7 from the field and made his only 3-point field goal attempt.
 
UCLA's game at Colorado on Sunday will begin at 1 p.m. PT (2 p.m. MT, in Boulder, Colo). The Bruins' contest will be nationally televised on CBS, with Spero Dedes and Bill Raftery calling the action at the CU Events Center.
 
Next week, UCLA will close its regular-season schedule with a pair of home contests against Arizona State (Thursday, March 2) and Arizona (Saturday, March 4). UCLA's game against Arizona State next Thursday will begin at 6 p.m. The Bruins' showdown against Arizona next Saturday is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Both of those games will be nationally televised on ESPN.