UCLA Escapes UTEP : College basketball: Edney’s free throw with four seconds to play gives Bruins 73-72 victory and trip to New York.

On to New York.

UCLA met its first objective of the season Friday night, defeating Texas El Paso, 73-72, at Pauley Pavilion in the quarterfinals of the preseason National Invitation Tournament on Tyus Edney’s free throw with four seconds to play.

The Bruins moved into Wednesday night’s semifinals at Madison Square Garden, where they will play the winner of today’s Seton Hall-Tennessee game at East Rutherford, N.J.

UTEP, which lost its top three players from a team that was 27-7 and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament last season, weathered a game-opening 18-2 run by the Bruins.

The Bruins trailed, 65-57, with about three minutes to play, but put together a 6-0 run to pull to within 65-63.

UCLA’s Shon Tarver made his first start of the season after sitting out Wednesday night’s 68-54 victory over St. Louis because of a deep thigh bruise.

“I don’t think he’ll be 100%,” Harrick said before the game, “but adrenaline should take care of some of that.”

Tarver was injured when he was kneed by teammate Ed O’Bannon while playing a one-on-one game Tuesday night after practice.

UTEP was at full strength, too, after defeating George Mason.

90-71, in a first-round game Wednesday night at El Paso.

But Coach Don Haskins, starting his 32nd season at UTEP, wasn’t thrilled with the Miner’s undisciplined play in their opener.

“I don’t know what to think,” he said before the game. “I know we can’t play the way we played at home and beat anybody on the road, especially UCLA. We were really out of control.”

UTEP was ragged at the start against the Bruins, too.

UCLA took a 10-0 lead before the Miners took a shot. UTEP committed turnovers in each of its first five possessions, all but one of which resulted in a Bruin basket. Then, after the Miners missed their first shot, Tarver scored to give UCLA a 12-0 lead.

UTEP finally scored on a short bank shot by Melvin more than 3 1/2 minutes into the game, but UCLA then outscored the Miners, 6-0, to make the score 18-2. O’Bannon and Tarver scored the last two baskets on breakaway dunks.

UTEP settled down after that and closed to 37-10 at halftime.

The Miners, who put together a 6-0 run at the end of the first half, outscored the Bruins at the start of the second, 12-5, to tie the score at 42 with 14:08 remaining.

UTEP took the lead for the first time, 52-50, on a driving layup by Melvin with 9:43 to play.

Bruin Notes

Freshman Kevin Dempsey, who played 15 minutes of UCLA’s opener against St. Louis, sat out because of tendinitis in his right knee. . . . Don Haskins, with a record of 607-264 in 31-plus seasons at UTEP, is the second-winningest active coach in college basketball behind North Carolina’s Dean Smith, who is 740-219. . . . UTEP’s Gym Bice was named James Douglas by his parents. He gave himself the nickname. . . . For the record: It was incorrectly reported Thursday that UCLA has not lost a home opener in 40 years. The Bruins were defeated by Brigham Young in 1981, 79-75, their only loss in a home opener since 1952.