LOS ANGELES — Mick Cronin has a method to his big man rotation and, frankly, he doesn’t care if you believe there’s really a succinct plan or not. When the UCLA men’s basketball coach chose not to play Aday Mara at all on Friday because he felt William Kyle III’s athleticism could better match Iowa’s quickness, it wasn’t because Mara had played himself out of the rotation. “I love Aday,” Cronin said then. Cronin gave Kyle the first crack in the Bruins’ game against Wisconsin on Tuesday night, but after Kyle was slow to close out on a pair of 3-point shots, both of which went in, Cronin showed that love to Mara. UCLA trailed by six when the 7-foot-3 sophomore first subbed in, but he immediately imposed his will. Mara scored a season-high 22 points and was a plus-6 in 22 minutes as the Bruins (13-6 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) discovered a size advantage and exploited it. The 18th-ranked Badgers (15-4, 5-3) have long excelled in the Big Ten with their size and slow-plodding attack, but the Bruins rode that strategy to an 85-83 win on Tuesday, snapping the Badgers’ seven-game winning streak. The Bruins flipped the script. They out Big Ten’d one of the conference’s perennially physical teams. While the Badgers relied on their perimeter prowess, knocking down 15 3-pointers, the Bruins were the bludgeoning aggressors. They played through their Spaniard, and junior Tyler Bilodeau consistently shot over the Badgers’ big men to add 16 points of his own. Sebastian Mack, the Bruins’ 6-3 version of Popeye the sailor man, played just as formidable as his towering teammates. He bullied his way into the paint throughout the second half, putting a quiet first half behind him and lifting the Bruins back into the conversation of Big Ten title contenders. He backed down Badgers guards Max Klesmit and John Blackwell from beyond the perimeter all the way into the paint. He scored 19 points, 15 of them after halftime. He bumped past Blackwell to earn a trip to the free-throw line to give the Bruins a two-point lead with 30 seconds left, which they never relented. The Bruins shot 22 free throws in the second half, as the Badgers’ only answer for the Bruins’ size was to push them off their spot. Mara, who shot 7 for 7 from the field, drew five trips to the line and was 7 for 9 from the stripe in the second half. Mara’s first act came as the answer to an 8-0 Badgers run in the first half. He subbed in at the 7:47 mark and scored a quick seven points before the break. Toward the end of the first half, Cronin played Mara and Bilodeau alongside one another, which he’s rarely done this season. He must have seen something he liked in that brief period because 2:46 into the second-half, he went back to it. The two-big lineup proved effective as the Bruins took a 55-51 lead and began to dictate the pace. Dylan Andrews remained confident, swiveling past Wisconsin defenders with hesitation dribbles. He hit a jumper from the left elbow to extend the Bruins’ advantage to nine. Related Articles College Sports | Betts blocks school-record 9 shots as No. 1 UCLA women rout Baylor College Sports | UCLA women’s basketball staying grounded amid new developments in the sport College Sports | UCLA routs Iowa with dominant first half, ends 4-game skid College Sports | UCLA gymnastics team feeling ‘different’ ahead of Big Ten debut College Sports | UCLA men’s basketball looks to regain its defensive identity The Badgers fought back, rivaling the Bruins’ size by getting to the line. They hit six free throws in the final 3:22 and then Blackwell dribbled into a 3-pointer right in Skyy Clark’s face to cut the Bruins’ lead to one. After Mack split a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left, Cronin decided to sub Kyle back in, hoping to have five players on the court who could guard any position. It was his first time seeing the court since his flawed early stint, but Kyle rose up and blocked John Tonje’s potential game-tying jumper in the paint with nine seconds left. Clark then made two free throws for an 84-80 lead. After a timeout, Tonje hit a 3-pointer that left Wisconsin down 84-83 with 0.5 seconds left, but the Badgers were forced to foul again and Clark made the first free throw and deliberately missed the second. UCLA’s win over Wisconsin was its third over teams ranked inside the AP Top 25 poll at the time of the game (Gonzaga and Oregon being the other two). UP NEXT UCLA plays at Washington on Friday at 8 p.m.