Bruins Boffo at Pauley : Basketball: MacLean scores 39, Murray has 29 and Martin sets school record with 15 assists as UCLA runs over Pittsburgh, 112-85.

Leave it to a coach who works in Westwood to compare college basketball to Hollywood. That’s what UCLA’s Jim Harrick did Saturday, saying that attending games is not unlike going to the movies.

“The picture’s different every game,” Harrick said.

Saturday’s matinee in Westwood was a slasher film, with UCLA playing the role of the villain.

Given a chance to forget their troubles in the Pacific 10 Conference for a few hours, the Bruins made the most of it before a sellout crowd of 12,053 at Pauley Pavilion, routing Pittsburgh, 112-85, in their first major network television appearance of the season.

A loser in four of its previous six games and only 4-4 in the Pac-10 after losing to USC Wednesday night, UCLA jumped to a 24-4 lead, made 59.4% of its shots and punished the Panthers.

“We played an exceptional game,” said Harrick, whose team improved to 16-5 and handed Pitt (15-7) its fourth loss in five games.

Most exceptional was junior forward Don MacLean, who followed his worst game of the season--he scored a season-low 11 points against USC--with his best, making 14 of 18 shots and scoring 39 points in 30 minutes.

Tracy Murray scored 29 points, making six of 13 three-point shots, and Darrick Martin had 10 points and a school-record 15 assists, but both were overshadowed by MacLean, who almost signed with the Panthers out of Simi Valley High, making one of his five recruiting trips to Pitt.

“I definitely had something to prove because of the loss Wednesday,” said MacLean, who missed a last-second three-point shot that would have beaten USC. “I had a lot of . . . I guess you’d call it fuel for the fire.

“A lot of people were a little down on me because of the way I played and maybe (because of) the shot I took Wednesday. I wasn’t really thinking about anything else but coming out and redeeming myself.

“I think I did a pretty good job of it.”

To say the least.

MacLean scored 18 points, making five of six shots and all eight of his free throws, and Murray scored 17, making four of seven three-point attempts, as UCLA built a 55-37 halftime lead.

The Bruins’ lead grew to 36 points with 10 minutes to play.

“I think our big guys just simply outran them,” MacLean said of the Panthers, who left Pittsburgh on Tuesday, lost at Villanova Wednesday night and arrived in Los Angeles Thursday. “We had so many fast breaks in the first half.

“Our defense keyed it, but once we got the ball, we blew by their big guys. We had a lot of easy hoops throughout the game.”

Pitt Coach Paul Evans had a hard time watching it unfold.

“I’m embarrassed to play that way in a national TV game,” Evans said. “I think we’re better than that, but we certainly weren’t today, and UCLA played as well as I’ve seen a team play all year.

“Their two big guys just were outstanding. Tracy’s range is unbelievable, and Donnie had his way any time he got the ball.”

Orchestrating it all was Martin, who kept the Bruins moving.

“They just got us out of sync with their transition game,” Evans said. “We got spread out on the floor and lost our minds a little bit as far as where we should be and who we should be guarding.”

Martin broke a record that had been held by Pooh Richardson, Roy Hamilton, Greg Lee and Andre McCarter.

“That’s the kind of game that Darrick and I have been talking about since he came here,” said Harrick, who arrived in Westwood with Martin 2 1/2 seasons ago. “Ten points and 15 assists for Darrick Martin is better than 15 points and 10 assists because that’s his role on our team.

“He came in here as a prolific scorer, but his role on this team is 10 and 15. If he can do that, he makes us awfully good.”

He did it against Pitt.

And UCLA looked awfully good.

Bruin Notes

After two losses in three games with Keith Owens in the starting lineup, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick returned to his original configuration, replacing Owens with Mitchell Butler. “I really like the quickness that Butler gives us,” Harrick said of the 6-foot-5 sophomore, who played a season-low six minutes and failed to score against USC. Butler scored 11 points in 23 minutes against Pitt. Owens fouled out in eight minutes, failing to score.

UCLA has played five games against the Big East since the conference was formed in 1979. The previous four were losses to St. John’s. . . . Don MacLean fell two points shy of his career high, established two seasons ago against North Texas. . . . Tracy Murray has scored at least 20 points in eight consecutive games, the first Bruin to do so since Lew Alcindor did it in the 1966-67 season.

Pitt’s leading scorer, Jason Matthews, scored five points, failing to reach double figures for only the second time in 50 games. “My friends, my family came to see me play and I didn’t play,” said Matthews, a senior from St. Monica High. He played 16 minutes and made two of four shots.

UCLA is not wearing an American flag on its uniforms in support of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf because school administrators won’t allow it, Gerald Madkins said. “They don’t want to offend the student body,” said Madkins, who drew peace signs on the backs of his shoes.