HENDERSON, Nev. — Tyler Bilodeau rose for a three-pointer that fell through the net as he was knocked down the court.

The UCLA forward and his team were on the verge of being blown out midway through the second half in their first test of the season. If the Bruins wanted to recover from a double-digit deficit, they had to start here.

Bilodeau stepped to the free-throw line for what could have been a four-point play. He missed. He grabbed the rebound and went back up for a putback. That was also not an issue.

Bilodeau ended up face down on the field, hit the hardwood with both hands and uttered an expletive.

It was a sequence that symbolized a night of frustration for the Bruins.

Unable to get much of anything it wanted, No. 22 UCLA faltered across the board during a 72-64 loss to New Mexico at the Las Vegas Hoopfest at Lee’s Family Forum.

Outside of Bilodeau, who was a source of offense with 23 points on eight-of-20 shooting to go with 15 rebounds, the sloppy Bruins failed to reliably get baskets.

UCLA (1-1) shot just 36.4% to New Mexico’s 51% and compounded the lack of contact with 21 turnovers and especially cold shooting from long range, where the Bruins made just five of 23 shots (21.7 %).

The Bruins made one final push after two Bilodeau free throws pulled them to within 68-59 with 4:28 left.

A steal by UCLA guard Skyy Clark led to teammate William Kyle III getting hammered under the basket. But Kyle missed both free throws, Clark missed a contested layup on UCLA’s next possession while appearing to absorb contact, and New Mexico’s Ibrahima Sacko made a layup to cut the Lobos’ lead to double digits .

Guard Donovan Dent finished with 17 points and eight assists to lead New Mexico (2-0) while committing an uncharacteristic nine turnovers.

Bilodeau didn’t get enough offensive help from his fellow starters — or anyone other than the bench for that matter. No other Bruin reached double figures in scoring. UCLA freshman guard Trent Perry made some heads-up plays on his way to eight points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

All the trends worked early in the second half against the Bruins. Point guard Dylan Andrews committed his sixth turnover and headed toward the bench. Forward Eric Dailey Jr. picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with his team trailing by 14 points.

UCLA had a brief flurry of positive developments when a steal from Perry in the backcourt led to a Kobe Johnson layup, and Clark followed with his own driving layup to cut the Bruins’ deficit to 10 points.

But as the UCLA bench stood and shouted “Defense!” hoping to spur a bigger run, New Mexico’s Mustapha Amzil made a three-pointer as part of another Lobos push.

The first half went as bad as possible for the Bruins. Their defense faltered, their offense was sloppy and their only save en route to a 41-30 halftime deficit were Bilodeau’s nine points and seven rebounds.

UCLA had significant problems stopping Nelly Junior Joseph. Bruins coach Mick Cronin went with his usual small starting lineup before bringing Kyle into the game as his first substitute.

But it didn’t matter who defended Joseph. Kyle, Dailey and Aday Mara all took useless turns against their Lobos counterpart, who had 14 points at halftime while making four of five shots. He finished with 16 points.

A defense that was supposed to be the Bruins’ strength failed to live up to expectations. New Mexico shot 60% in the first half. UCLA couldn’t come close to maintaining 38.5% and 10 turnovers while falling behind by as many as 12 points.

A bad start threatened to get even worse.