Trent Perry Scores 21 as No. 22 UCLA Upsets No. 5 Arizona 84-75 Despite Ivan Kharchenkov's 38

Ivan Kharchenkov put together the kind of night that usually ends with a box score framed on a dorm wall. Thirty-eight points, ten rebounds, a dozen made free throws, and a career high that nearly doubled the old one. It still was not enough, because UCLA had already built a cushion in the first half and found just enough answers in the final three minutes to beat No. 5 Arizona 84-75 on Monday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The No. 22 Bruins opened the 2026-27 season by knocking off a top-five team in the Hall of Fame Series, and they did it without sophomore big man Filip Jović, who sat with a left ankle injury, and with two of their bigs fighting foul trouble almost from the opening tip. Trent Perry scored 21 to lead UCLA, Jaylen Petty and Eric Dailey Jr. added 13 apiece, and Mick Cronin walked out of the desert with a statement win on night one. UCLA is 1-0. Arizona starts 0-1.

The Bench That Broke It Open

The early minutes looked like a Pac-12 tournament flashback, two old rivals trading jumpers in the same building where they used to settle conference titles. Perry got UCLA on the board with a jumper and a floater, and Petty buried back-to-back threes for a 10-4 lead. Then the whistle started to shape the night. Xavier Booker was pulled less than two minutes in with fouls and did not come back until the middle of the half. Perry, the team's best shot creator, also picked up early fouls and spent most of the first half on the bench.

That should have been Arizona's opening. Instead, it became UCLA's best stretch. With Brandon Williams and Sergej Macura soaking up minutes at center, Macura, in a UCLA debut, drilled consecutive threes to ignite a 14-0 run that turned a tie game into a 27-13 lead. Joe Philon III, another debutant, finished a fast break with an alley-oop, and Petty knocked down his third three of the half to stretch the margin to 14.

The numbers from that half are ugly for Arizona. The Wildcats made one of 13 three-point attempts before the break. Their bench was outscored 17-4. Motiejus Krivas, the 7-foot-2 center, did not make a field goal in the first 20 minutes. Kharchenkov had 18 at halftime and was essentially the entire offense, which is how a team with Arizona's talent ended up trailing 43-29 at the break.

Kharchenkov Goes Supernova

Booker opened the second half with a jumper that pushed the lead to 45-29, UCLA's largest of the night at 16. From there, Kharchenkov turned the game into a one-man siege. Kharchenkov finished 12-of-20 from the field, 2-of-6 from three and 12-of-16 at the line, attacking closeouts, finishing through contact and crashing the glass for three offensive rebounds. The previous career high was 20, set against Denver last Nov. 24. This was a different player.

Derek Dixon finally found some range alongside Kharchenkov. Dixon scored 18 on 5-of-17 shooting, and while that efficiency is nothing to celebrate, four of Dixon's 12 three-point attempts dropped, and two of them came at moments that felt like they might swing the night. Krivas, held without a field goal in the first half, still finished with eight points, nine rebounds and six blocks.

Arizona chipped the lead into single digits by the midpoint of the half, and UCLA kept answering with just enough. Philon III's three with 5:03 left made it 68-60 and seemed to steady things. It did not last. Dixon hit a three to make it 71-68, and Kharchenkov went to the line with 3:11 left and made both free throws. A 16-point lead was down to one, 71-70, and the Wildcats had all the momentum.

Booker's Answer and the Closing Kick

The turning point came 12 seconds later. Booker, who had spent so much of the night watching from the bench, stepped into a three and buried it for a 74-70 lead with 2:59 left. It was the shot of the night because of what it stopped. Arizona had scored on back-to-back trips, and instead of a tie or a Wildcats lead, the Bruins were back up two possessions.

Dailey followed with a bucket in the paint at 1:31 for a 76-70 lead. Dixon kept swinging, and Arizona's final five points all came from Dixon, but UCLA had one more set play in the bag. Out of a timeout, freshman Nikola Kusturica fired a cross-court inbound pass to Dailey for a two-handed dunk with about 40 seconds left. Perry and Kusturica then went a combined 6-for-6 at the line in the final 32 seconds to ice it.

Perry's line deserves a second look: 21 points in only 25 minutes, five assists, and a perfect 11-for-11 at the free-throw line. The field goal numbers were rough at 4-of-12, but a guard who draws that many fouls and never misses from the stripe in a tight game is doing the most valuable work on the floor. Cronin has a closer, and Monday proved it.

Where UCLA Won It

The final shooting numbers barely separate these teams. UCLA shot 27-of-71, just 38 percent. Arizona was 22-of-60, 36.7 percent. The Bruins made 10 of 29 threes; the Wildcats made seven of 30. Arizona actually got to the line more, going 24-of-30 to UCLA's 20-of-25, helped by a whistle-heavy night with 45 total fouls, 26 of them on the Bruins.

So where was the gap? Possessions. UCLA grabbed 45 rebounds, including 16 on the offensive glass, and turned the ball over only seven times. Arizona committed 11 turnovers. Petty did a little of everything with 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and went 4-of-6 from deep, the only really efficient shooting performance from either backcourt. Dailey added eight rebounds to go with 13 points. The Bruins' 45 rebounds were their most in a game since a February 2025 win over Ohio State, according to UCLA Athletics.

Cronin's postgame message focused on exactly that. "They're smart enough to understand that the least important thing on the stat sheet is total points," the UCLA coach said, per the school's official recap (opens in a new tab). That is classic Cronin, and on a night when the Bruins shot 38 percent and still won by nine, it is also correct.

What It Means in November

For UCLA, this is a real résumé win before most teams have unpacked their warmups. It was the Bruins' first win over a top-five AP team since beating No. 4 Purdue 69-67 last January, and Cronin is now 7-1 in season openers in Westwood. Four players made UCLA debuts, Macura, Philon III, Kusturica and Azavier Robinson, and that reserve group won the first-half bench battle 17-4. Petty, the transfer from Texas Tech, looks like the kind of secondary creator this offense was missing. The questions are about size: with Jović out and Booker limited to 13 minutes by fouls, the frontcourt depth is thin, and Big Ten bodies are coming.

For Arizona, this one is about who was not on the floor. RJ Godfrey is ineligible after a bid for a fifth season of eligibility was recently denied, and the Wildcats looked like a team still figuring out who gets the ball when Kharchenkov needs a breather. Only Dixon reached double figures alongside the star. The 7-of-30 night from three will not repeat often, and Krivas will not go a half without a field goal very often either, but the early-season reality is that Tommy Lloyd has one bona fide scorer and a lot of auditions.

The rivalry gets another Las Vegas chapter, too. These programs had met seven times in Vegas before Monday, all at the Pac-12 tournament, and Arizona had won five of them, including the 2023 tournament final in this same arena. UCLA flipped the script this time.

Arizona's home opener is Thursday against Cal Poly at McKale Center. UCLA hosts North Florida at Pauley Pavilion on Friday, Nov. 6.

Box score: UCLA Athletics official box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: UCLA Athletics, ESPN, Associated Press, Field Level Media, Daily Bruin. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Kharchenkov will remember the 38 longer than the loss, and Arizona will be fine once the rotation settles. But the best player on the floor does not always get the result. UCLA proved that depth, rebounding and Perry's perfect night at the line can beat a 38-point masterpiece, and the Bruins head home to Pauley with the kind of win that ages well in March.

Photo: Jan Kim Lim/UCLA Athletics.