Pasadena Star-News

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UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. celebrates with David Singleton as Jack Seidler, left, joins in following Sunday’s victory. PHOTOS BY DAVID ZALUBOWSKI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

UCLA forward Adem Bona, who scored eight points, hangs from the rim after dunking during the first half of Sunday afternoon’s Pac-12 game against Colorado.

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and Luke O’Brien each scored 13 points. Colorado nearly pulled off the upset against UCLA after coming off a lopsided loss to USC.

“There’s a different feeling today after the loss than after Thursday night’s loss, and something I talk to the players about, is that the reason that they’re down and disappointed tonight is because they fought their tails off,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “They competed their tails off, and they came up short.”

The Buffaloes fought back to take a 45-44 lead on da Silva’s 3-pointer with 8:13 remaining, capping an 8-2 run by the Buffaloes. The game remained tight down the stretch with the score tied twice in the final 3:41.

Jaquez made one of two free throws with 2:17 left to put UCLA on top by a point and Campbell added another basket for the Bruins. The Buffaloes got back within two points on a pair of free throws by Lawson Lovering with seven seconds remaining. Amari Bailey was fouled on the subsequent inbounds play and he made both free throws to secure the victory over Colorado, which did not get a shot off in the final seconds.

Down by a basket at the break, UCLA scored the first seven points of the second half to go in front 35-30. It was the Bruins’ first lead since Jaquez scored on a dunk in the opening minute of the game. Tyger Campbell capped the burst with a 3-pointer, the first make from beyond the arc for the Bruins, who went 0 for 6 in the first half.

UCLA missed 10 of its first 11 shots and fell behind 11-2 before gradually cutting into the deficit, pulling to within 30-28 on a layup by Jaylen Clark just before the halftime buzzer. Colorado couldn’t build on its early lead because of offensive problems of its own and actually finished the first half shooting 37.9%, some two percent lower than UCLA in the same span.

The Bruins made one of their 14 3-point tries but that was enough to extend a 23-year streak. Campbell’s 3-pointer early in the second half extended UCLA’s streak with at least one made 3-pointer to 782 games. The Bruins have not gone without a 3-pointer in a game since going 0 for 14 from beyond the arc in a 78-63 loss at then No. 2 Stanford on Feb. 3, 2000.