Washington Lets Another Lead Slip Away With Loss at UCLA
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Washington Huskies forward Lathan Sommerville (24) prepares to shoot over UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau (34) at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. Credit: Washington Athletics [/caption]
Another first-half lead slipped away for the Washington men’s basketball team, and virtually any thoughts of an NCAA Tournament berth all but disappeared with a 77-73 loss to UCLA.
UW had its chances at a coveted — and much-needed — Quad 1 win. Instead, the Huskies lost for the third time in four games to fall to 12-12 overall and 4-9 in the Big Ten. Though the schedule eases up for the final seven games, opportunities for committee-impressing wins are dwindling. The Huskies would likely need to win all seven, plus a few in the Big Ten tournament.
A team that’s seen nine players miss a combined 77 games due to injury simply hasn’t had enough to beat good teams.
“We played five Top 10 teams in the last month,” Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle said. “This was our fourth road trip. We had three trips back to the Midwest, and then this trip, all in the last 20 days.
“It’s not an excuse. Our guys — they’re tired. You can see it even in the hotel. We have to be able to get through that.”
It took a while for the fatigue to become a factor.
Washington’s Wesley Yates came out firing, scoring 12 of his 21 points in the first six minutes and hitting a pair of 3s as the Huskies opened with a 16-10 lead. Yates, who made 13 of 23 from behind the arc in the previous four contests, missed his final four attempts Saturday. Despite two late 3s from Quimari Peterson (12 points) to pull UW back into contention late, the Huskies again struggled overall once again with the long ball, making just five of 17 attempts (29%).
“I thought Wesley was tremendous from the beginning,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “He got us off to a great start scoring the basketball.'‘
Washington led 34-30 at halftime, but turnovers and UCLA’s strong work on the boards proved too much after the break. The Bruins improved to 111-44 all-time against UW, which has won on the road at UCLA just eight times.
Washington also missed six of 18 free throws, including two by Zoom Diallo after a technical foul was assessed to UCLA coach Mick Cronin.
“I thought there was two momentum swings,” Sprinkle said. “When coach Cronin got the technical, and we missed two free throws, and they came and hit a 3. It’s a five-point swing, you know? And then the other one was when they got an offensive rebound and hit a 3.”
The 3 came from Tyler Bilodeau, who scored 19 points despite being limited to 24 minutes because of foul trouble. UCLA’s Trent Perry led all scorers with 23 points, matching Bilodeau with 3 triples.
Though both teams finished with 30 rebounds apiece, UCLA pulled down 12 offensive rebounds. Hannes Steinbach, who entered the game with 15 double-doubles in 20 games played, finished with just 13 points and seven rebounds after a 29 and 10 night against the Bruins at UW earlier this season.
“You got to give [UCLA’s] defense a lot of credit, too,” Sprinkle said. “They were focused on him, and they made it hard — they were physical.”
The Huskies trailed 70-63 after Bilodeau made a free throw with 59 seconds to go, but Washington managed to make the Bruins sweat down the stretch.
Peterson scored eight straight Washington points as the Huskies cut UCLA’s lead to 71-68 with 38 seconds to go.
Yates converted a 3-point play to pull UW within two points, 73-71, with 23 ticks remaining. UCLA was able to close it out with free throws to sink the Huskies, however, and the Bruins (17-7, 9-4) strengthened their grip on a Big Dance berth.
“We don’t have a lot of margin for error to win right now,” Sprinkle said. “Where some teams have a lot more, we don’t have that. and that’s where the free throws, the turnovers come in.”
