Who’s Playing
Gonzaga Bulldogs @ UCLA Bruins
Current Records: Gonzaga 9-3, UCLA 10-2
How To Watch
- When: Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 4 p.m. ET
- Where: Intuit Dome — Inglewood, California
- TV: FOX
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
What to Know
The UCLA Bruins and the Gonzaga Bulldogs will round out the year against one another at 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at at Intuit Dome. The Bruins are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 78.4 points per game this season.
UCLA is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering N. Carolina just ended the team’s nine-game winning streak on Saturday. They fell just short of the Tar Heels by a score of 76-74. The Bruins were up 59-43 in the second but couldn’t hold on to the lead.
Despite the loss, UCLA had strong showings from Tyler Bilodeau, who went 9 for 14 en route to 26 points, and Sebastian Mack, who went 6 for 11 en route to 22 points plus two steals. The dominant performance also gave Mack a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (75%).
Meanwhile, Gonzaga entered their matchup on Saturday as the heavy favorite, and they fully lived up to expectations. Everything went their way against Bucknell as Gonzaga made off with an 86-65 victory. The Bulldogs have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won six games by 21 points or more this season.
Gonzaga can attribute much of their success to Graham Ike, who dropped a double-double on 25 points and ten rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Nolan Hickman, who posted 14 points.
Gonzaga was working as a unit and finished the game with 21 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Bucknell only posted nine.
UCLA’s defeat dropped their record down to 10-2. As for Gonzaga, their win was their eighth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 9-3.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. UCLA hasn’t had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 78.4 points per game. However, it’s not like Gonzaga (currently ranked first) struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 89.2. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
UCLA came up short against Gonzaga in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, falling 69-65. Thankfully for UCLA, Anton Watson (who went 14 for 15 en route to 32 points plus seven rebounds and two steals) won’t be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check CBSSports.com after the match to find out.
Series History
Gonzaga has won 4 out of their last 5 games against UCLA.
- Nov 23, 2023 – Gonzaga 69 vs. UCLA 65
- Mar 23, 2023 – Gonzaga 79 vs. UCLA 76
- Nov 23, 2021 – Gonzaga 83 vs. UCLA 63
- Apr 03, 2021 – Gonzaga 93 vs. UCLA 90
- Dec 12, 2015 – UCLA 71 vs. Gonzaga 66
