LOS ANGELES — The Wisconsin Badgers (15-4, 5-3 Big Ten) fell in the second game of their first-ever West Coast conference road trip, losing to the UCLA Bruins (13-6, 4-4), 85-83.

The Badgers’ hot shooting gave them a lead midway through the first half that they carried into the break. Yet the Bruins proved to be the more aggressive team in the second half, taking advantage of a choppy, foul-heavy contest en route to a victory.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from the loss.

UCLA’s first season in the Big Ten hasn’t gone exactly as hoped.

They began the year 11-2, but a rough January put them at 12-6 heading into Tuesday night.

Bruin head coach Mick Cronin has even made headlines for his honesty about UCLA’s recent woes.

“We have struggled in Big Ten basketball,” Cronin said ahead of their matchup with Iowa.

“Our two wins were against teams we were familiar with playing against (Oregon and Washington). The truth of it is, Big Ten basketball is different. It’s a much more physical game.”

Through 20 minutes, it looked like the Bruins were headed for more disappointment. The Badgers shot the lights out in the first half (10-18 from 3) and carried a five-point lead heading into the break.

But when the two teams came back out of the tunnel, something flipped. UCLA became the aggressor.

They turned up their defensive pressure, overwhelming the Badgers, all while staying efficient on offense.

In the first 17 possessions of the second half, the Bruins shot 11-for-17, including 7-for-8 on layups and dunks. In that same span, the Badgers shot just 4-of-11.

If UCLA showed anything on Tuesday, it’s that they can physically hang with a real Big Ten team.

Center Aday Mara was the big star, posting a career-high 22 points (more on him later). Forward Sebastian Mack was a complete physical force who dominated the second half. He got away with more than he would most other nights, but it worked.

The Bruins wore their frustration on their sleeves. They showed infinitely more fight and aggression than the Badgers.

“UCLA, even though they’re new to the Big Ten, I’ve always thought they play like a Big Ten team,” coach Greg Gard said after the game.

“You’re not gonna get anything easy. They’re gonna challenge you on cuts. They make it hard to drive the ball to the rim.”

“They were a little hungrier tonight,” Steven Crowl said.

Box score-skimmers may wake up confused, seeing that Wisconsin somehow lost despite shooting 85.7 percent from the line and 50.0 percent from distance.

Yet for those who watched the game, the outcome wasn’t a surprise. The Badgers simply made far too many mistakes on both sides of the ball to expect to beat a quality team.

“Obviously, [we had] 13 fouls and allowed 10 offensive rebounds. We just could not get stops in the second half,” Gard said.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had to talk to a locker room that’s not on the right side of the score.”

The Bruins’ aggressive style often involved them sending double-teams, which would leave shooters open. The Badgers took advantage of this.

They were often sluggish but stayed competitive because of how well they shot.

But the other end of the floor is where the energy disparity was both more apparent and ultimately fatal. When UCLA had the ball, it looked like they were playing a different sport than the Badgers.

“Offensively, we were fine. If you score 83 points, you better win it,” Gard said.

“It’s the defensive component and it’s the ability to keep Mack out of the paint. And that’s more to do with the holistic concept of the defense. We’re too spread out. We needed to make them find other ways to score. And we need to guard without fouling. I thought we lost discipline at times.”

The officiating seemed to have a real effect on how aggressively Wisconsin was willing to play on both ends of the floor. Yet they could have done a better job of trying to compete at the line.

The Badgers’ premier foul-drawer, John Tonje, somewhat disappeared later in the game after a 16-point first half.

“We shot 20 free throws. We probably could have shot another 10 or 15 based on the physicality of the game,” Gard said.

The loss is frustrating in the moment, but nights like these happen. It was the Badgers’ second game of a West Coast road trip, amidst a seven-game winning streak.

Especially when factoring in the place UCLA has been, and the officiating, this wasn’t necessarily a bad loss.

This was, it seems safe to say, just one of those games.

The most dangerous player on the Bruins Tuesday night wasn’t any of their highest scorers, or even a starter.

The true difference-maker was 7-foot-3 sophomore center Aday Mara.

Mara took over the game and finished with a career-high 22 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting night from the field while also making 8-of-11 free throws. He entered averaging 4.3 points per game.

“Mara, I thought, came in and gave them great minutes,” Gard said. “We put so much attention on the ball screens and trying to stop the guards so that Mara was able to play the paint.”

The seven-footer from Spain didn’t enter the game until later in the first half. But it was his work during the second half that paved the way for their late takeover.

It seemed that whenever he got the ball in the post, Wisconsin’s big men were left utterly helpless. Mara would either dunk (without having to really jump) or throw up a floater that always somehow fell in the basket.

It didn’t help the Badgers that Mara was being officiated like he was Zach Edey. But no matter how the refs called the game, Wisconsin’s defense was lackluster.

Crowl’s early season struggles reappeared. He had no match for Mara’s size and rarely played with any noticeable aggression.

It’s easy to call this performance an aberration. A bench player who averages 4.3 points a game won’t explode for 20 every night.

Yet the big men’s struggle to contain Mara is the real concern. They were already torched by Michigan’s bigger frontcourt in mid-December. After Tuesday, matching up with size could be considered a looming issue.

The Badgers may have just been on the wrong side of a random career game. Or maybe he’s the next Edey. Only time will tell.