A Fresh Start for Bruins : College basketball: UCLA freshman Tracy Murray gets first start and scores 25 points during 106-97 victory over California.

The timing couldn’t have been much more curious.

Or the results more spectacular.

After missing all eight of his shots and failing to score on Thursday night in a loss at Stanford, Tracy Murray marked the occasion of his first collegiate start on Sunday by making nine of 10 shots, scoring a season-high 25 points and passing for a season-high seven assists in UCLA’s 106-97 victory over California.

UCLA, apparently, has finally found a starting center.

“I told him a long time ago that he was a starter,” Coach Jim Harrick said of Murray. “They just didn’t announce his name.”

From now on, they will.

Murray, who made five of six three-point shot attempts, provided a spark as the Bruins played probably their best game of the season in running their record to 12-3 and 6-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Cal (13-5, 4-3) made 51.5% of its shots, had only six turnovers despite the frantic pace and stayed even with the taller Bruins on the boards, and never led in the last 31 1/2 minutes in front of 6,578.

“You just don’t figure on UCLA playing a superb game like that and shooting 65% from the floor,” Cal Coach Lou Campanelli said.

Especially on the road, in front of a hostile crowd.

The fast pace, though, was much to the Bruins’ liking.

“This is our style of play,” Harrick said. “We’re an up-tempo team. We like to run the floor. We like to play against the press. It gives you a lot of shots. We had a lot of good, quality shots.”

They made 39 of 60, including 10 of 13 three-point shots.

“Our guys like it when they’re not guarded,” Harrick said.

Don MacLean, upset with the way Campanelli used him last summer at the Olympic Sports Festival and determined not to let the Cal coach forget it, made 11 of 16 shots and led UCLA with 27 points and 12 rebounds.

“I don’t think I’m going to let him beat me for my next three years,” MacLean said of Campanelli. “I’m going to make sure of that.”

Gerald Madkins made six of seven shots, including four of five three-point shots, and scored a career-high 20 points for UCLA. Trevor Wilson scored 16 points and Darrick Martin had 10 points and seven assists.

And then there was Murray.

A freshman from Glendora High, where he was the state’s all-time leading scorer and averaged a national-best 44.3 points a game last season, he was nevertheless surprised when Harrick pulled him aside at practice on Saturday and told him he was going to start against the Bears.

He’d never gone zero for eight, as he did at Stanford.

“I didn’t expect it,” Murray said, “but he gave me the chance, so I went ahead and played to the best of my ability.”

Harrick said that he had contemplated the move for a month, but didn’t want to rush the 6-foot-8 Murray into the starting lineup.

But when senior Kevin Walker unexpectedly struggled through the first month of the season and his replacement, former walk-on Keith Owens, was unproductive in three starts, Murray’s time had finally come.

“I felt that I just couldn’t wait any longer,” Harrick said.

Murray made all four of his shots, including three three-point baskets, as the Bruins riddled a Cal zone in the first half. UCLA made 12 of its first 16 shots, including five three-point baskets, to open a 33-26 lead.

Cal last led at 26-23, but pulled to within 39-38 with 6:45 left in the first half. But UCLA then outscored the Bears, 15-6, to assume a 54-44 halftime lead.

The Bruins then made eight of their first nine shots in the second half, increasing their advantage to 66-51, before the Bears rallied. Cal, which got a season-high 31 points from freshman center Bryan Hendrick, twice cut its deficit to three points, the last time at 86-83 with 6:10 left.

It was still a five-point game before Murray helped the Bruins pull away, first scoring on a tip-in, then passing to Wilson for a short bank shot and finally making a pair of free throws after rebounding a missed free throw by Wilson to make it 98-89 with 2:21 left.

Bruin Notes

UCLA’s 65% shooting was its best of the season, surpassing a 60% effort last month in a 115-66 rout of East Tennessee State. “The nets are scorched beyond repair,” Cal Coach Lou Campanelli said. “We’ll put up new ones tomorrow.” . . . UCLA has won 60 of its past 62 games against Cal, but Campanelli said: “I can’t find fault with anything we did.” . . . The Golden Bears had never scored as many points in a losing effort.

Keith Owens spent the entire game on the bench after scoring four points and grabbing four rebounds in three games as UCLA’s starting center. . . . Tracy Murray scored his previous season high, 20 points, last month against American. . . . Gerald Madkins’ previous career high of 15 points was achieved against Louisville this month and against Washington State two years ago. He scored one point on Thursday night at Stanford.

Keith Smith and Roy Fisher each had 18 points and eight assists for Cal as the two teams combined for the fourth-highest point total in Harmon Arena history. . . . Murray, asked by a Bay Area reporter if he expected to soon be “the man” for UCLA: “This is a team. There’s no man here.”

The victory was Jim Harrick’s 200th as a major college coach. He was 167-97 in nine seasons at Pepperdine, is 33-13 in his second season at UCLA. . . . UCLA made a season-high 10 three-point shots and had a season-high 28 assists. . . . Cal is only the third team to make more than 50% of its shots against UCLA this season. The other two, Notre Dame and Louisville, beat the Bruins. . . . Trevor Wilson had a season-low four rebounds.