LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Mick Cronin watched Oregon score the first five points of the second half while his arms were crossed in disappointment. After just 51 seconds, he’d seen enough. He quickly turned to his bench and pointed for freshman Peyton Watson to check in.

Watson popped off the bench and high-stepped to the scorer’s table.

The 6-foot-9 wing had a little pep in his step after a first half that saw him score five points, grab six rebounds and block two shots. It was obvious he wanted to give more. And that he did.

Cronin turned to Watson with just 21 seconds left in the second half to put pressure on the Ducks as they were inbounding the ball underneath their own basket. Jaylen Clark forced a steal and laid the ball in to tie the score with 16 seconds left and help send the game to overtime before Oregon’s Will Richardson missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Watson’s performance helped to bridge the gap between third-ranked UCLA’s lackluster performance and its effort to try and eke out an overtime win, but the Ducks prevailed, 84-81, on Thursday night in a mostly empty Pauley Pavilion.

“We didn’t deserve to win,” Cronin said. “I don’t grade the game on the score, I grade on performance. We had a terrible practice yesterday. Worst of the year. That’s on me.”

“My job is to stop it and get their attention. Obviously, I failed miserably.”

Johnny Juzang had a good look to tie the score from the wing in the final six seconds of overtime, but his shot was off the mark. Jules Bernard got the rebound and put up a jumper that Da’Vion Harmon got his hand on as time expired.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. missed two free throws with 47 seconds left that could have tied it, but the second miss led to a small jumper from Jacob Young that ballooned the extended the Ducks’ advantage to 83-79 with 19 seconds left. Myles Johnson scored for UCLA before Richardson made one of two free throws.

“We’ve got talented guys, but we’ve got to come up with stops down the stretch and we just didn’t do that,” Juzang said. “We have to tighten up close games like that against good teams. You can’t have that many mistakes.”

Juzang finished with 23 points in 37 minutes, Jules Bernard scored 13 on just 3-of-13 shooting. Young led the way for Oregon with a season-high 23 points, and Richardson had 16. The two combined for all 11 of the Ducks’ overtime points.

Watson tallied 10 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two assists in 21 minutes in his best performance since UCLA’s victory over Bellarmine in November.

“The only bright spot was Peyton Watson with his eight rebounds,” Cronin said. “But to come out in the second half, have just four deflections, give up 52% (shooting) and 62% in overtime is an abomination.”

The Bruins (10-2 overall, 2-1 Pac-12), who shot 40% from the field, allowed Oregon (10-6, 3-2) to score 18 fast-break points and 17 points off of turnovers.

UCLA, which saw a five-game winning streak end, overcame a stretch of seven consecutive missed shots in the first half. That was part of a 1-for-10 shooting display that lasted just under four minutes. Yet, somehow a Juzang 3-pointer kept the Bruins within one, 19-18.

With five minutes to play in the first half, both teams were hovering around 30% shooting overall. Watson injected energy into the final five minutes of the half with a block at the rim and a 3-pointer that helped UCLA build a 35-30 lead at halftime. Oregon made just two baskets over the final 8:20 of the first half.

“We didn’t play defense. We didn’t take care of the ball. We didn’t share the ball,” Cronin said. “You’re either humble and hungry, like (Oregon), trying to pull off a so-called upset. Or you’re arrogant without cause because we’ve won nothing.”

The Ducks made just one 3-pointer in the first half, then came out and hit four to start the second half. It was part of a 16-2 run that gave them a 46-37 lead.

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Watson and Tyger Campbell bookended a 14-4 spurt with 3-pointers that gave the Bruins a 51-50 lead.

Both teams had a player foul out in the five-minute extra session. The Ducks lost Eric Williams Jr., who had 10 points and eight rebounds. The Bruins lost Cody Riley, who had 11 points after picking up his first two fouls in the game’s first 30 seconds.

NOTES

UCLA pumped in fake crowd noise for the second straight game with only 119 relatives of coaches and players allowed in the arena because of surging COVID-19 cases. “It didn’t help,” Cronin said of the empty seats, “but I don’t believe in excuses.” … The Ducks’ win was the 700th of Coach Dana Altman’s career. Altman improved to 13-9 against UCLA and has won three in a row. It was Altman’s first visit to Pauley Pavilion since Cronin became UCLA coach in April 2019. … The Ducks swarmed the court after the game ended and their loud celebration in the locker room echoed throughout the arena.

UP NEXT

UCLA hosts Oregon State on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.