CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 12: Donovan Dent #2 of the UCLA Bruins goes for a layup past Harun Zrno (13) of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the third round at the Big Ten Men's Basketball Championships at the United Center on March 12, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.

Dent's historic triple-double helps UCLA top Rutgers in Big Ten Tournament

The Associated Press
2 months ago
Big Ten / University Images / Getty

CHICAGO (AP) — Donovan Dent had 12 points, 12 assists and a career-high 10 rebounds — the first triple-double in the history of the Big Ten Conference Tournament — to help sixth-seeded UCLA beat No. 14 seed Rutgers 72-59 on Thursday night in the third round.

Dent became the fifth player in program history to record a triple-double, joining Bill Walton, Toby Bailey, Jelani McCoy and Kyle Anderson.

UCLA (22-10) plays No. 11 and second-seeded Nebraska in the quarterfinals Friday.

Tyler Bilodeau led the Bruins with 21 points, Trent Perry scored 12 and Eric Dailey Jr. 10.

Dailey hit a jumper and then threw down a fast-break dunk before Bilodeau made a 3-pointer to spark a 14-2 run that made it 46-31 with 15:18 left in the game and UCLA led by at least nine the rest of the way.

Lino Mark led Rutgers (14-19) with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists. Tariq Francis, who set a the program record for points in a Big Ten Tournament game with 29 as the Scarlet Knights beat Minnesota 72-67 in the second round, finished with six points on 2-of-11 shooting against the Bruins.

The Bruins beat Rutgers 98-66 at home Feb. 3.

Up next

UCLA: Plays Nebraska, which the Bruins beat 72-52 on March 3, on Friday.

Rutgers: Season complete.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

XRedditFacebookWhatsAppEmailSMS
MORE STORIES