UCLA's Mack ejected for flagrant 2 against Utah

LOS ANGELES — UCLA‘s Sebastian Mack received a flagrant foul 2 and was ejected from Sunday’s 70-69 loss to Utah.

The freshman guard entered as the Bruins’ leading scorer at 13.5 points per game.

Mack appeared to strike Utah’s Branden Carlson in the face with his forearm or elbow with 9:53 remaining in the first half. Carlson stayed down on the court holding his face with a trainer checking on him until walking off to the locker room. He later returned and scored off an offensive rebound at the buzzer to give Utah the win.

After a video review, the referees assessed the flagrant foul on Mack and he headed to the locker room. He had four points on 2-of-3 shooting, with UCLA leading 16-12 at the time.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin said after the loss, which ended the Bruins’ six-game win streak, that he hadn’t yet seen the film but pointed to Mack’s actions as part of a pattern of “dumb fouls.”

“The reason we were winning was we stopped doing dumb stuff — dumb fouls, in particular, and they were back tonight,” he said.

Cronin said Mack’s ejection wasn’t an excuse for the loss.

“Excuses are for losers. It was still five-on-five,” he said. “It’s not hockey. They weren’t in a penalty. We got to sub somebody in. We didn’t get the job done. That’s on me. Sure, we would have liked to have him.”

Utah routed UCLA 90-44 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 11, the second-worst loss in program history.

UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic said the Bruins knew the rematch was going to be physical.

“They beat us pretty badly the first time, so we came in, we knew we had to be tough,” he said. “They are also a physical team, so it’s nothing crazy. It happens every game that teams are physical. I don’t know what happened to Sebastian, I didn’t see exactly what happened, but that’s what happens sometimes with physical teams.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.