Bruins Put on a Rather Poor Exhibition, Lose to Australian Team, 84-68

It’s been a long haul for the Australian national team that has been losing its way through a tour of the Pac-10. The starters were tired when they came into Pauley Pavilion Wednesday night to play UCLA.

So the Aussie reserves came off the bench to beat the Bruins, 84-68.

If this exhibition game is any indication of what’s in store, the Bruins are in big trouble.

“We were thoroughly thrashed by a good team, an experienced team,” UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard. “They were a great outside-shooting team. If we had designed a defense to give them those shots, we would have been glad to let them have those shots.

“But they put them in. Last night, they didn’t do that as well.”

The night before, the Australians had beaten USC by four points. The only other team the Aussies beat was Cal, by 18. They had lost to Stanford, Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State.

“Back home, people are not going to believe we beat UCLA,” Australian Coach Adrian Hurley said. “Australian basketball is modeled after American basketball. When we study American basketball, we study about UCLA.

“We used to come in here and just stand and look at the banners. Winning at Pauley Pavilion is really special.”

The Bruins were down, 42-34, at halftime after letting a 12-point lead get away. Australia took control of the tempo of the game, patiently picking shots--long shots--and making them. Australia scored 12 straight points to tie it at 26-26.

In the second half, Australia led by as many as 18 points as the Bruin defense faded into the woodwork.

“Defense is one of the areas we take pride in, but I guess now we have to go back and work on our defense,” Hazzard said.

Calvin Bruton, a 5-9, 31-year-old guard who played at Wichita State, led the Australian team with 21 points. Bruton, who had not started any of the seven games on this tour, came in to make 8 of 12 shots from long range.

Reggie Miller led UCLA with 29 points. Other than that, about the only positive thing that Hazzard could point to was the fact the game was over.

Center Jack Haley played 24 minutes, took one shot--and missed it. He also had one rebound.

The Bruins open the regular season Sunday at North Carolina.