EL PASO, Texas – Randy Walker knows drama.

This season the Northwestern coach saw a successful onside kick lead to one win. He watched a failed two-point conversion secure another. And he looked on as his team snatched defeat from victory, allowing a fourth-and-15 conversion that resulted in a game-winning touchdown.

But none of that prepared him for Friday’s Sun Bowl, where the Wildcats’ flair for the dramatic shifted toward the theater of the absurd.

UCLA wide receiver Brandon Breazell returned consecutive fourth-quarter onside kicks for touchdowns, sealing for the No. 17 Bruins a wild 50-38 win that featured five interceptions, two missed extra points and a 22-point NU lead that evaporated by halftime.

“Never seen anything like it,” Walker said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a game quite like that one.”

The first Breazell touchdown came after NU (7-5) pulled to within 36-31 with 2:29 left. Junior kicker Joel Howells could not recreate the magic of his onside kick against Iowa on Nov. 5, instead sending the ball directly into the hands of Breazell, who had an open path to the end zone.

Two minutes later, with UCLA (10-2) up 43-38, Howells made almost the exact same kick. This time, Breazell had to cut across the field to elude defenders, but the result was the same.

“(After) they returned the first onside kick, we were like: ‘All right, good. They scored fast. That’s fine. We get the ball back,'” senior quarterback Brett Basanez said. “When he got the second one, we were like: ‘OK. Well, I’ve never seen that before.'”

Before the game, the two offenses dominated the headlines – NU came into the Sun Bowl ranked eighth in total offense, while the Bruins were seventh in scoring. But almost instantly the Cats’ maligned defense – ranked last in the nation – stole the show.

After forcing a three-and-out on UCLA’s first possession, leading to a 33-yard field goal by junior Joel Howells, NU’s defense snagged three interceptions in the span of four Drew Olson pass attempts. Olson had thrown three interceptions all season.

Two – by redshirt freshman defensive end Kevin Mims and junior Nick Roach – were returned for touchdowns, while another – by junior safety Bryan Heinz – led to a 19-yard touchdown run by senior wide receiver Mark Philmore on a reverse.

These scores gave NU a 22-0 lead less than 11 minutes into the game, with Howells missing two extra points, one blocked and the other off the left upright.

Then the momentum swung away from NU as quickly as it arrived. With star running back Maurice Drew sidelined with a shoulder injury suffered on an earlier kickoff return, the Bruins used sophomore Chris Markey, who finished with 150 yards on 23 carries, and freshman Khalil Bell, who ran 19 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns, to swiftly move 80 yards for a score. Suddenly the NU defense was exposed, and the UCLA offense was rolling.

Meanwhile the NU offense stalled, allowing the Bruins to take a 29-22 halftime lead. UCLA then extended its scoring run to 36-0 early in the third quarter.

“Being on our team, I know we always find a way to make it interesting,” senior offensive tackle Zach Strief said. “I don’t know that we let up necessarily (at 22-0) and that they picked it up any. I just don’t think the offense had as much of a sense of urgency that we needed to have.”

The Bruins’ worst-in-the-nation run defense held freshman running back Tyrell Sutton to 84 yards on just 18 carries. Basanez, who was punished by several hard hits throughout the day, ended his career completing 38 of a career-high 70 pass attempts, totaling 416 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Cats amassed 584 yards of total offense, keeping the game within reach until Breazell’s touchdowns.

“It kind of ended up where I thought it would be,” Walker said. “I thought we’d have to make a play or two at the end to have a chance. We gave ourselves a chance to do that.”

The loss was the Cats’ fifth straight in the postseason, with all five coming in the past 11 years.

NU’s only bowl win was a 20-14 win against California in the 1949 Rose Bowl.

Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].