All's well that ends well, but UCLA head coach Mick Cronin certainly did not like how his Bruins began Saturday's home game vs. Illinois.

The Illini had a clear, albeit narrow, edge early on in the Big Ten clash. But around the five-minute mark, they quickly gained steam and began to run UCLA off the floor. During a more than six-minute span, Illinois completely dominated the Bruins, outscoring them 20-0 to take a 33-10 lead a little more than 10 minutes through the first half.

After the game, Cronin explained how bad it got offensively for his team as Illinois continued to pull away.

“We did not run one thing we practiced the first 10 minutes because we were rattled because they were making shots,” Cronin said in his postgame press conference. “And I just thought — I was worried before the game because, you know, everybody's got all the answers behind the keyboard. And these kids read that stuff. I'm oblivious, but I could see it on — I didn't like the look on their face before the game. I think it was almost like they had lost confidence. And we played like that early We played like that until we forgot about it. So I kept telling them, ‘It's your career, guys. Like, nobody's in Ukraine, you know, carrying a rifle. It ain't that — let's play some ball, men. Play some ball.' Trying to get them to relax.”

Despite the big Illinois run, by the end of the first half, the Bruins had climbed back within seven. The deficit only continued to shrink until UCLA tied the game up and eventually took a slim advantage. It could not keep it, though, as Keaton Wagler made a pair of game-tying free throws with under 20 seconds to go to send the game to overtime.

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Fortunately for the Bruins, some heroics were on their side as well. With 4.9 seconds remaining and down a point, Donovan Dent took an inbounds pass at one end of the court and raced to the other, darting between and around defenders to lay the game-winner up as time expired.

With the win, UCLA is now 18-9 on the season and 10-6 in Big Ten play. Coming into Saturday, the Bruins picked up back-to-back embarrassing road losses in Michigan against the Wolverines and Michigan State.

UCLA plays its penultimate home game Tuesday against archrival USC before heading to Minnesota for a weekend tilt with the Golden Gophers.