Bruins Takes Pressure Off Harrick : College basketball: UCLA rolls past Oregon, 79-62, after coach is chastised by Pacific 10 Conference.

With UCLA Coach Jim Harrick uncharacteristically subdued on the bench, the Bruins made all of the noise in a 79-62 Pacific-10 Conference victory over Oregon before 9,458 at Pauley Pavilion Thursday night.

Harrick, who watched the Bruins take command almost from the beginning, was reprimanded by the Pac-10 earlier in the day.

Pac-10 Commissioner took the action, which also included placing Harrick on probation for the rest of the season, because of Harrick’s criticism of official Mark Reischling after UCLA’s 87-79 loss at Stanford last week.

That criticism came in postgame comments to reporters and in Tuesday’s weekly press conference. Hansen said that the public reprimand came because of Harrick’s Tuesday’s comments.

Pac-10 officials would not offer a firm definition of Harrick’s probation. “It means ‘be careful,’ ” said Assistant Commissionser Mike Matthews.

Suitably chastised, Harrick said nary a word to the officials, watching calmly as the Bruins overpowered the Ducks to improve to 13-3 overall and 7-1 in the Pac-10, a game behind Oregon State. Oregon State ran its conference record to 8-0 Thursday night with a 92-82 win over USC.

Oregon is 9-8 overall, 4-4 in the Pac-10 and 0-6 on the road, but Harrick said this week that the only difference between Oregon and Oregon State was “a little bit of Gary Payton,” Oregon State’s All-American guard.

That would seem to be a major difference, but Harrick said that he was concerned that the Bruins might overlook the Ducks and have their minds on Saturday’s showdown with Oregon State.

It didn’t happen, and Harrick seemed delighted.

“I liked the fact that we came out and just played basketball,” he said. “There are only (a few) times you can come out and be on a high emotionally and I knew tonight we wouldn’t.

“But we were enthusiastic.”

Don MacLean led the Bruins with 20 points and 11 rebounds, the fourth time in five games that he has reached double figures in both categories, and freshman Tracy Murray scored 19 points, making seven of 11 shots.

Trevor Wilson scored only 10 points, matching his low for the season, but also took 11 rebounds, Darrick Martin had a career-high 11 assists and reserve forward Zan Mason had eight rebounds in only 15 minutes.

Guard Terrell Brandon led Oregon with 19 points and six assists.

Outmanned by the deeper, more talented Bruins, the Ducks had hoped to avoid an up-tempo game. Their deliberate style at the start prompted one fan to shout at Coach Don Monson: “Play basketball, not keep-away.”

And when UCLA then put together an early 15-2 run to open a 22-11 lead with 11:38 left in the half, the Ducks had no choice.

They spent the rest of the game trying to catch up.

Oregon got as close as 24-20 in the first half before being outscored, 9-2, during a 93-second blitz by the Bruins that included a dunk by Murray off an alley-oop pass by Martin.

MacLean ended the half with 15 points and eight rebounds, making seven of 10 shots as the Bruins shot 54.3% from the floor.

Murray scored 13 points in the half and Wilson scored 10, including two on a dunk with five seconds left that gave UCLA a 46-31 halftime lead.

A frustrated Monson was called for a technical foul early in the second half, and as the Ducks fell farther behind and Monson continued to complain, a merciful Bruin fan called for Monson’s ejection.

“Put him out of his misery,” the thoughtful fan implored.

Monson, though, stayed until the end, at which time he said that the Bruins were as talented as anybody the Ducks have played this season.

“Their rebounding really killed us,” said Monson, whose team lost the battle of the boards, 49-38. “You can’t let them get in the open court and run; they just have too many good athletes for that. We didn’t get back on defense, so their transition game really hurt us.”

Harrick saw to it that the Bruins wouldn’t let up, reminding them that not much separated Oregon and Oregon State in two meetings this season. Oregon State won both, but by a total of only five points.

He warned them not to set their sights toward Saturday.

“He made sure that we came out with some fire and played hard, instead of just going through the motions,” MacLean said.

Bruin Notes

Keith Owens, who started three games at center this month, is believed to be the first walk-on to start for the Bruins in a game other than a season-ender since the 1970-71 season, when John Ecker started a game after Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe arrived late for training table and were disciplined by Coach John Wooden. . . . UCLA’s games against Oregon State Saturday and DePaul Feb. 3 are sold out.

Coach Jim Anderson of Oregon State learned a lesson from Coach Lou Campanelli of California, who criticized Don MacLean last summer when he coached the UCLA forward at the Olympic Sports Festival. After MacLean had 27 points and 12 rebounds last Sunday in a 106-97 victory over Cal, Anderson addressed a Times reporter as he spoke Monday to a booster group in Corvallis, Ore.:

“I want to tell Don MacLean--if you would put it in your paper--I think he’s a good defensive player. I think he’s really good. I think he’s good-looking. I like his taste in girlfriends. I’m not going to get on his bad side.”

Freshman Tracy Murray, who came to UCLA as a forward but has been used mostly at center this season, could wind up in the backcourt, Coach Jim Harrick said. “I need to teach him the guard stuff,” Harrick said. “That’s what I need to do next.” Murray might be the Bruins’ best player in the middle of a fast break, Harrick said. . . . Harrick, on the effect of last week’s loss at Stanford: “We kind of wanted to be in the top 15 all year long. That was kind of a goal, but now we’ve got to work our way back in there.” Actually, Harrick’s goal is to be among the top 16 seeds in the NCAA tournament.