Arizona State Sputters Against UCLA, 83-62 : College basketball: The Sun Devils’ highly imperfect performance leaves the Bruins with their perfect record intact.

In an effort to keep his players focused on Thursday night’s Pacific 10 Conference opener against Arizona State, rather than Saturday’s showdown against No. 6 Arizona, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick reminded them this week that “the road to Tucson leads through Tempe.”

It was an autobahn.

The Bruins cruised past Arizona State, 83-62, before 11,598 in the University Activity Center, improving their record to 9-0, their best start since the 1974-75 season, when they won their first 12 games en route to the last of their 10 NCAA championships.

Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said before the game that his team would have to play its best game of the season to beat UCLA.

But the Sun Devils (9-4) didn’t come close.

UCLA won easily, building a 29-point second-half lead despite making only 43.3% of its shots, its second-worst performance of the season.

Arizona State shot only 40.7% and was outrebounded, 49-31.

“You can’t play like that and beat a team like UCLA,” Frieder said. “They’re too skilled and too good.

“We did all the things that we couldn’t do. We turned it over too easily, we didn’t board the way you have to board and we didn’t shoot. You can’t play badly against a team like UCLA, and we didn’t play very good.”

UCLA coasted after taking a 65-36 lead with 12:22 to play.

“It was over a lot earlier than I thought it would be,” UCLA forward Don MacLean said. “It’s tough to play in these games sometimes. You lose your edge and your intensity, but the second half went pretty smoothly.

“It seemed like from about (the 15-minute mark) on, the game was over. We were just kind of out there playing. We knew we had it won.”

Mitchell Butler said that several Arizona State players asked for mercy.

“When we got the upper hand, I think they realized there was nothing they could do and they started asking, ‘Why don’t you guys stop pressuring us?’ ” Butler said. “It was kind of funny.

“They were like, ‘You guys should take it easy on us.’ And we were like, ‘We’ve just got to play the game and keep going.’ It just seemed like they gave up, and we kept trying to apply the pressure, to let them know that we weren’t going to let them creep back into the game.”

Tracy Murray led the Bruins with 28 points, equaling a season high, and pulled down a personal-best 15 rebounds, 11 offensive.

MacLean scored 21 points, moving past Reggie Miller into second place on the Bruins’ scoring list behind Lew Alcindor. Shon Tarver scored 14 points, all in the first half, and Butler scored 12.

Forward Jamal Faulkner and center Lester Neal each scored 13 points to lead Arizona State, but Faulkner made only five of 16 shots.

This is a much different Sun Devil team from the one that was 20-10 last season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Sun Devils miss their bulky former center, Isaac Austin.

“They don’t really have a guy to go to (inside) to maybe open up the guys on the wing,” MacLean said. “Faulkner shot a lot of shots from three-point range with a hand down his throat.”

He made one of seven.

MacLean said the Bruins had prepared well for the Sun Devils.

“We knew we had to win this game,” he said. “I think (our) team, more than anybody, has learned its lesson about overlooking teams. Last year, we lost to a lot of teams in the Pac-10 that shouldn’t have beaten us.”

It didn’t happen this time, and now it’s on to Tucson.

Are the second-ranked Bruins the best team in the Pac-10?

“That’s an excellent basketball team,” Frieder said, “but I would not discount Arizona. I think we’ll know a lot more after Saturday.”

Bruin Notes

Don MacLean needs 221 points to replace Lew Alcindor as UCLA’s all-time leading scorer. . . . MacLean ranks fifth on the Pac-10 scoring list behind Arizona’s Sean Elliott, the all-time leader; Stanford’s Todd Lichti, Alcindor and Oregon State’s Gary Payton. He needs 451 points to pass Elliott. . . . Darrick Martin failed to score for only the third time in his career, the first time since he was a freshman. . . . Gerald Madkins will practice with the Bruins today after having the cast removed from his broken left hand and might be available to play against Arizona.