No Bilodeau, No problem: No. 7 UCLA gets round one win over No. 10 UCF

We just witnessed Mick Cronin’s plan get executed. Despite the UCLA Bruins holding out star forward Tyler Bilodeau , for the No. 7 seed Bruins got a 75-71 first round win over No. 10 seed UCF. UCLA decided it was wiser to let Bilodeau heal as much as possible and place trust in the rest of the rotation to get the win.

Now UCLA could be adding Bilodeau for their Round of 32 matchup. UCLA will face the winner of No. 2 seed UConn and No. 15 seed Furman later Friday evening, but the Bruins will probably be facing the 29-5 Huskies.

The win was far from pretty for the Bruins, but UCLA didn’t mind, as they were able to survive a round one upset without their All-Big Ten Conference forward. Bilodeau has averaged 17.6 points and 5.6 rebounds but UCLA did enough as a collective to get the win.

With Bilodeau out of the starting lineup, Xavier Booker took his place. Booker put up a strong 15 point, eight rebound showing while knocking down a pair of threes. UCLA will hope for Bilodeau to be back as soon as possible but Booker rose to the challenge to kick off the NCAA tournament. Eric Dailey Jr, stepped up too, scoring 20 points while going 8-17 from the field.

It was a tough game for Skyy Clark. Not because of his shooting, but because in the second half Clark lost part of his front tooth. After a collision with a Knights player, Clark exited the game but half of a tooth remained on the floor until a UCLA teammate came out from the bench and grabbed the tooth for safekeeping.

UCLA doesn’t have long to enjoy the victory, as they’ll be back in action on Sunday. The Bruins showing on Friday wasn’t one that’ll put fear in the rest of the East Region, but UCLA did what was important, which was getting a win without Bilodeau.

This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA gets NCAA tourmament win over UCF without Tyler Bilodeau