A jumper from Kentucky’s Sahvir Wheeler with 4:31 to play Saturday evening at Madison Square Garden brought the Wildcats within two points of UCLA.

In a clash of college basketball blue bloods — and ranked foes — at the CBS Sports Classic, the 16th-ranked Bruins had led by as many as 13 points in the first half and throughout the entirety of the second half. But there was No. 13 Kentucky, with the clock ticking down, hoping to make things uncomfortable.

Three nights after beating the brakes off a ranked Maryland team, UCLA showed how far it has come since those back-to-back early-season losses to Illinois and Baylor.

The Bruins closed on an 8-0 run — a jumper from Tyger Campbell, a free throw from Mac Etienne, another from Jaylen Clark, then buckets at the rim from Campbell and Clark — to race away from the Cats and close out a 63-53 win.

“We know what we’re capable of if we defend and play with the toughness we played with this week,” coach Mick Cronin said after the game. “When we take care of the ball — we had a few more turnovers than we’re used to tonight, but we’re still plus-five in that category — we also out-rebound Kentucky by one. We have enough talent.

“It’s hard to get a lot of points on Kentucky, it just is. They’re so big around the rim, so athletic on the wings. The game becomes a rock fight, bloodbath, whatever you want to call it. It’s just hard to get buckets. You have to be hard to score on. We’ve gotten to a point where our guys are embracing that, they know we’re going to go win the game with defense. If we have a great night offensively, we win by 20, but we’re going to win one way or the other and we have to stop the other team.”

The Bruins (10-2) limited the Wildcats (7-3) to just 33% shooting. They forced 18 turnovers on the night, including a dozen in the first half, and out-rebounded the Cats 43-42. Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe, who entered the evening averaging 16 points and 13 boards a night, went for 16 rebounds in the game but missed eight of his 12 shots.

Kentucky got 21 offensive boards and scored just nine points off them.

“This one was really physical. Really physical,” said Clark after the game. “They’ve got big Oscar. That man is a tank. Seeing him play is different than when you actually play. I wanted to shout out our big men. Kenny (Nwuba), Mac, and Adem (Bona). I thought they played tremendous. They did a tremendous job getting around him, listening to the scouting report. I thought Mac played amazing when he got his minutes in. Big ups to those guys because they played great in my opinion.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. logged a 19-point, 12-rebound double-double to lead the way offensively.

Clark finished with 15 points and eight rebounds while co-leading the team alongside Jaquez with four steals. Campbell added 15 points.

Jaquez did most of his damage in the first half, posting a dozen points and eight boards to help the Bruins build an eight-point lead by halftime.

There was a distinct punch-counterpunch theme early on in the game, but it gave way when UCLA broke out an 8-2 run to make it 15-9 at the 13:49 mark of the first half. The Bruins would never trail the rest of the game.

Clark kick-started the burst with a jumper out of a TV timeout, and Jaquez made it four straight points after driving the lane and putting in a lay-up. Back-to-back jumpers from Campbell and David Singleton (eight points) capped off the run.

Jaquez scored six consecutive points at one point midway through the first half, including a jumper at the 6:28 mark that gave the Bruins their largest lead of the game, 31-18.

Kentucky fired out of the gates to start the second half with an 11-3 run that tied things at 38-38 with 15:13 left in regulation. But UCLA had answers to each Kentucky push.

“The Illinois game was the best thing to happen to us,” Clark said. “It’s made us grow, just the embarrassment factor. We feel like they walked into the West Coast and just took it over, so for March Madness reasons we knew we couldn’t come out here and afford to lose any games.”

Beating Kentucky, no matter how you do it, is quite the statement.

UCLA returns to the floor next Wednesday, Dec. 21, to host UC Davis at Pauley Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.