LOS ANGELES — The backboard blinked red and security flooded the hardwood before the horn’s echo finished ricocheting through the rafters — the surest sign that Pauley Pavilion had hosted something too good to gamble with.
Donovan Dent — oh, Donovan Dent — had bent 4.9 seconds to his will. He gripped them by the collar and wrung every last drop out of them until UCLA upset No. 10 Illinois, 95-94.
Dent gathered the inbound and rammed the gas pedal — each step chewing the hardwood. The homegrown stud ripped up the floor, streaking past midcourt as Tyler Bilodeau planted himself behind Keaton Wagler to blow the runway clear. At top gear, Dent darted through the middle with two Illinois defenders tethered to his hip. The floor shrank around him — one against four and nowhere generous to step.
Dent folded in midair, the ball dipping to his ribs before he unfurled through a forest of arms.
The ball kissed the glass as Pauley Pavilion trembled on the junction of doubt and delirium. The net shattered the tension.
DONOVAN DENT DOWN THE COURT AT THE BUZZER FOR THE WIN 😱 @UCLAMBB pic.twitter.com/3CVqN7k59A
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 22, 2026
“It was exactly the way we drew it up,” Dent said. “During the end of the stretch, I wasn’t making a layup to save my life. … So for me to get that one was amazing.”
Security guards were the first to concede, sprinting like men trying to dam a river with bare hands. The floor liquefied as blue and gold flooded the aisles in waves, arms windmilling, voices splintering. Dent drowned beneath a tide of bodies, lifted and lost in the very storm he had summoned in Westwood. Bodies kept pouring in behind the rhythm of UCLA’s “8 Clap,” while UCLA flags circled through the air.
“I think in the locker room we’re at our highest point together as a team,” Dent said. “To come here and get a win was big time.”
Nine minutes into the first half, this scenario would have seemed like fiction.
At the 9:27 mark in the first half, UCLA looked foggy while trailing 33-10 — legs heavy from two road bruises in Michigan and minds crowded by a week hijacked by Mick Cronin headlines. Illinois feasted, prying quick points from loose balls and tired closeouts. UCLA’s defense caved, Illinois growing comfortable from distance to the tune of 10 first-half 3s.
The Fighting Illini’s early 20-0 run fit what EvanMiya classifies as an “Avalanche” — teams were 6-60 this season after absorbing one. UCLA looked destined to join that list.
And so, for stretches, Pauley’s roar was all Midwestern.
“We did not run one thing we practiced the first 10 minutes. We were rattled because they were making shots,” Cronin said. “I didn’t like the look on their face before the game, it was almost like they had lost confidence. And we played like that early.”
Not only did Donovan Dent score the winning bucket, but he also finished with 14 points and 15 assists without a turnover. (Robert Hanashiro / Imagn Images)
A 16-5 UCLA response trimmed it to 50-43 by halftime, and Pauley felt a new roar rising in its ribs.
“We held them in the second half to 29 percent (shooting) and in overtime to 22 percent — the No. 1 offensive team in the country,” Cronin said. “So don’t tell me — that’s what I just told them in the locker room — that we’re not capable of being a better defensive team.”
“We really locked in tonight,” Eric Dailey Jr., who had 20 points and six rebounds, said. “I love how we responded to the shots they were making. Even when we had lapses — the next play, we got it back.”
Dent authored his second-half wizardry to finish with 14 points and 15 assists without a single turnover.
“That’s what he’s here for,” Dailey said, jokingly adding: “that’s OD (overdoing) though, I’ve never seen that.”
UCLA ratcheted up defensively, chasing Illinois off the perimeter. Behind that and what Dailey called UCLA’s veterans “picking each other up” amid “a lot of negativity toward our program,” six Bruins stood in double digits in a comeback that belonged to a roster that refused to splinter.
“We were connected, in every way possible,” Dent said — pointing out that two players-only meetings after the Michigan road trip strengthened togetherness. “We just kept saying, keep fighting.”
Dent had already watched a potential winner roll away at the end of regulation. He blew a box-out seconds before Wagler grabbed what felt like a backbreaking putback with 4.9 seconds left in overtime. It should have been the final mistake. It should have been the final cruel note in a month that’s pulled at every seam of this program.
Instead, for 4.9 seconds, Pauley Pavilion felt 1995 again — when Tyus Edney raced the length of the floor, knifed through Missouri and floated in a layup while UCLA’s season suspended in his palm. Dent stared down the same length of hardwood, gifted 0.1 seconds more than Edney — and the same ending awaited at the rim.