UCLA Races to Win : College basketball: Bruins fast break their way past Oregon, 99-87. Tarver shows off for relatives with 23 points.

UCLA Coach Jim Harrick looked over the Bruins’ schedule this week and said he had a hard time spotting a “gimme.”

Oregon might qualify.

UCLA experienced few tense moments while beating the Ducks, 99-87, Thursday night before 7,489 at McArthur Court.

The Bruins, who never led by less than 10 points during the last 16 1/2 minutes, made 56.9% of their shots while producing their highest point output since last Jan. 16, when they defeated Oregon, 99-71.

“We knew last summer this was not a half-court team,” Harrick said of the Bruins, who consistently beat the Ducks down the floor. “We don’t want to play half-court basketball. We want to get it up and push it.

“When we run and open the court, we defend better, we rebound better, we run better. We just play a little bit better.”

The Ducks tried to keep up, with only limited success.

“We felt that, if we ran a lot, maybe we could wear them down, but I don’t think that really happened,” said Oregon swingman Antoine Stoudamire, laughing. “They ran and ran and kept running.

“We played hard, but they just played really well.”

Playing better than most was Bruin junior Shon Tarver, who made 10 of 16 shots and scored a season-high 23 points in front of his parents, grandparents and a couple of uncles, all from Portland.

“I was just a little more active and involved in the offense,” said Tarver, who lived in Portland for nine years before moving to Southern California, where he was an All-Southern Section player at Santa Clara High in Oxnard. “Sometimes, I seem to be wandering out there and just kind of drifting, but I really tried to make things happen.”

Tarver was assigned to Stoudamire--a former youth league rival and Oregon’s top player--and limited him to five points during the first half, when Stoudamire made only one of five shots.

“He did score a lot,” Tarver said of Stoudamire, who finished with a game-high 28 points, making eight of 11 shots after halftime, “but I thought I did decently when the game counted.”

Ed O’Bannon scored 21 points, Tyus Edney and Mitchell Butler both scored 15 and Richard Petruska had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Bruins, who improved to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Oregon is 7-8 and 0-3.

Harrick was pleased with how well his inexperienced team reacted to its first game of the season on an opponent’s home floor. Other UCLA road games have been in off campus arenas.

“You take kids on the road, especially young kids, and this is a new experience,” he said before the game. “The league’s different. These are tough places to play-- real tough places to play.”

They are a lot less intimidating when the home team misses its first eight shots, as Oregon did before center Jeff Potter made a layup with 15:45 remaining in the half, cutting the Bruins’ lead to 8-2.

Oregon recovered nicely, making 10 of its next 11 shots to take the lead briefly at 22-21, but the Bruins answered with an 8-0 run.

UCLA led at halftime, 45-36. Oregon never got closer than eight points after that.

Harrick admitted later that he might have seen it coming.

“I would hope that if we played (as well as we’re capable), it would be like this,” he said. “I know their personnel.”

Bruin Notes

Only Mike Lanier, a 7-foot-7 backup center, did not play for UCLA. Lanier has played only six minutes this season. . . . Oregon reserve Andre Collier had 13 assists in only 27 minutes. . . . UCLA, which failed to make a three-point shot in two of its previous three games, was three for 10 from long range. . . . The loss was Oregon’s first in six games at McArthur Court this season.

* USC LOSES

The Trojans shoot 26% in the second half of a 68-57 loss at Oregon State. C4