UCLA Rips Loyola, 149-98 : Basketball: Bruins set school records for most points in a game and most points in a half as they make 65.2% of their shots.

Returning to Pauley Pavilion for its home opener after winning the Great Alaska Shootout last week in Anchorage, UCLA treated a sellout crowd of 12,267 Sunday night to the Greater Los Angeles Blowout.

Breaking school records for most points in a game and most points in a half, the Bruins made 74.5% of their shots in the second half, 65.2% overall and overwhelmed Loyola Marymount, 149-98.

UCLA broke a 21-year-old school record when it scored 134 points in a 33-point victory over UC Irvine in its opener Nov. 23, but the record lasted less than 10 days as eight Bruins scored in double figures against a Lion team that was playing its third game in as many nights.

UCLA hadn’t scored a more lopsided victory since the last month of the 1982-83 season, when it beat Arizona, 111-58.

The Bruins scored 84 points in the second half as Coach Jim Harrick didn’t clear his bench until less than 2 1/2 minutes remained.

“I was hoping we’d crack them a little bit, but we tended to crack ourselves,” Loyola Coach Jay Hillock said. “I expected our guys to play a little bit better. I thought it would be a closer game--much closer.”

The Lions, who played at UC Irvine on Friday and Saturday nights in the Freedom Bowl Tournament, made only 36.2% of their shots, misfiring on 24 of 28 three-point attempts in losing for the fourth time in six games.

This, of course, wasn’t the same Loyola team that outran and outscored most of its opponents last season, reaching the round of eight in the NCAA tournament before losing to Nevada Las Vegas.

Gone from that tournament team are starters Bo Kimble, Per Stumer and Jeff Fryer. And starting guard Tony Walker probably won’t play this season because of a wrist injury.

Also gone is former Coach Paul Westhead, who had tried in vain since 1985 to schedule a game against the Bruins.

UCLA finally relented, but only after the Pacific 10 Conference canceled its postseason tournament, leaving the Bruins with an open date after conference games against Washington and Washington State, originally scheduled for the first weekend in December, were rescheduled for March.

Westhead then was hired last summer as coach of the Denver Nuggets, leaving Hillock and the depleted Lions to take on a UCLA team that has four starters and seven of its top nine players back from last season, when it reached the NCAA tournament’s round of 16.

“I’m not going to give them total respect because they wouldn’t play us when we had a powerhouse,” Loyola guard Terrell Lowery said of the Bruins. “Why weren’t we playing this game on Dec. 2, 1989?”

But even Lowery, who scored 48 points Saturday night against Idaho State, had to admire the defensive work of the Bruins, who limited him to 13 points and five-of-25 shooting. Lowery, who made 48% of his shots and averaged 29 points in Loyola’s first five games, made one of 11 three-point shots.

“I’d have to say they did a good job,” Lowery said.

Lowery missed all 11 of his shots in the first half as UCLA built a 65-43 halftime lead, outscoring the Lions in one stretch, 16-0.

It only got worse in the second half for the Lions as UCLA continually beat them down the court for layups and dunks.

“We just blew them out,” UCLA’s Don MacLean said.

MacLean led the Bruins with 33 points, almost all of them on layups and free throws, but nevertheless caught the ire of Harrick, who said: “He missed about four shots he should have made.”

Point guard Darrick Martin had 17 points and 10 assists and earned praise from his coach. “Darrick kind of controls a game like that,” Harrick said. “I thought he dominated the game a little bit.”

But not the statistics.

Mitchell Butler had career highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds, Tracy Murray scored 16 points and Gerald Madkins had 10 points and six assists. Among the reserves, Shon Tarver had 16 points, five assists and five rebounds in 21 minutes, Zan Mason had 14 points and eight rebounds and Rodney Zimmerman had 11 points and six rebounds, making all five of his shots.

Richard Petruska, a 6-foot-10 reserve forward from Levice, Czechoslovakia, led Loyola with 21 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes.

Bruin Notes

UCLA is 4-0. . . . Other scoring records established were Pauley Pavilion records: Most points in a half and most points in a game by two teams; most points in a game and most points in a half by one team. . . . Don MacLean has scored more points only twice in 68 games at UCLA. He scored 35 against USC last season and had 41 against North Texas two seasons ago.

UCLA had 38 assists, 10 more than it had in any game last season. . . . None of UCLA’s four opponents has made more than 38.9% of its shots. . . . UCLA’s Keith Owens blocked four shots in 16 minutes.

Loyola’s Terrell Lowery made 32 consecutive free throws before missing in the first half. . . . Loyola’s Richard Petruska, a member of the Czechoslovakian national team, was recruited by the Bruins before Ed O’Bannon and Shon Tarver announced last summer that they would enroll at UCLA.

MacLean, on Loyola’s run-and-gun approach: “It’s not really basketball to me. They just come down the floor and throw the ball up.” . . . Loyola Coach Jay Hillock, on the Bruins: “They’re in the top echelon in the West, and the top echelon in the West can play anybody in the country.”