The UCLA Bruins and the Ohio State Buckeyes meet Saturday in college basketball action from State Farm Arena. UCLA lost to Villanova in their last outing, which dropped the Bruins to 5-3 overall. As for Ohio State, they’re 8-2 this year after a loss to Penn State last weekend. Let’s get into our UCLA vs. Ohio State prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

UCLA Bruins 

The Bruins kicked off the year with a nice three-game win streak over St. Francis PA, Lafayette and Long Island U. UCLA has alternated wins with losses since then, losing to Marquette and Gonzaga with victories versus Chaminade and UC Riverside otherwise in the next quartet. 

UCLA fell to Villanova in their last matchup over the weekend. The Bruins held a 29-25 lead by halftime but then faded in an eventual 65-56 result. Leading team scorer Lazar Stefanovic put up 14 points with nine rebounds and three assists. Adem Bona added 11 points with eight boards as well. 

Ohio State Buckeyes

Over on the Buckeyes’ side, they had just one blemish in their first nine games this year: a 73-66 loss to Texas A&M. Outside of that, Ohio State took out Oakland, Merrimack, Western Michigan, Alabama, Santa Clara, Central Michigan, Minnesota and Miami-OH during that opening stretch. 

Ohio State took their second loss of the year in a close outcome at Penn State back on Saturday. The Buckeyes went into the second half with a 41-29 edge, then gave up 54 points from there in a tough loss 83-80. Bruce Thornton topped the team in the losing effort with 17 points and four assists. 

ANDREW’S FREE UCLA VS OHIO STATE PREDICTION 

I’ll stick with Ohio State. The Buckeyes need a good bounce-back after the rough second half in the Penn State matchup, though. In that one, Ohio State ended up shooting 45 percent from the field with 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from 3-point range and 43 rebounds. The 16 turnovers didn’t help though, nor did the 15-of-22 (68.2 percent) from the line. 

As for UCLA, they’re coming off a pretty flat shooting effort (36.7 percent) in the Villanova game. The Bruins haven’t gotten past 66 points in any of their last three games, so I don’t think they’ll quite have the gas to keep a cover pace on Saturday.