Hawkeye men’s defense gets shredded again in Los Angeles in 94-70 loss at UCLA

(This story was written in Cedar Rapids.)

LOS ANGELES — The sun shined.

Otherwise, the week the Iowa men’s basketball team spent in Los Angeles was spent in a dark place. Three nights after their 99-89 loss at USC, the Hawkeyes were routed by UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, 94-70.

“We worked really hard in practice last couple days,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “I thought we'd be better.”

The Bruins led 70-35 seven minutes into the second half.

Iowa dropped to 3-4 in the Big Ten, 12-6 overall. It slipped to 0-4 in conference road games. UCLA, which halted a 4-game losing streak, has the same records. The Bruins’ previous high point-total in league play was 75.

It was a walloping in Westwood. The Bruins made their first nine shots and were 65.7 percent from the field in building a 57-24 halftime lead. They had nine steals and three turnovers in the first half. The Hawkeyes had zero and 12.

“I didn't see a lack of effort,” McCaffery said. “I saw a lack of execution to some of the things that we prepared for. And that's disappointing, because that leads to falling behind.”

Making a rotten night worse, Iowa senior forward Payton Sandfort (17.1 points per game coming in) suffered a shoulder injury in the first half and was done for the rest of the game. He couldn’t have saved them, though, even with one of his recent patented second-half scoring salvos.

Iowa is 0-6 in NCAA Quad 1 games.

Sophomore forward Eric Dailey Jr., had a career-high 23 points for the Bruins. Josh Dix led Iowa with 19 points, 14 after halftime. He made five 3-pointers.

UCLA’s final shooting total was a season-high 62.1 percent. Iowa’s two Los Angeles opponents shot a combined 63.5 percent (73-of-115) and outrebounded the Hawkeyes 66-39.

Iowa’s next game is at home Tuesday at 8 p.m. against Minnesota (1-6, 9-9).

“We will try to move on from what has not been a good trip and learn from some of the mistakes we made,” McCaffery said. “It will remain positive. I want them to remain positive with each other and just start preparing for our next opponent and recognize the things that happened tonight that, moving forward, aren’t acceptable.”

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