Bruins Win in a Jog : College basketball: UCLA is slowed down a little by Tennessee State, 80-66. Ed O’Bannon scores 24 points.

They still time basketball games by the clock and not by the radar gun, so UCLA Coach Jim Harrick’s theory about the three kinds of games probably holds up.

And what are they?

“Fast, medium, slow,” said Harrick, who watched UCLA play mostly medium Wednesday night before 7,152 at Pauley Pavilion, where the Bruins outscored Tennessee State, 80-66, in what amounted to sort of a brisk jog to the basket and back.

So medium was the message and UCLA was the answer. The Bruins won their third in succession to start the season behind Ed O’Bannon’s 24 points and seven rebounds, withstanding a 25-point, 18-rebound performance from 6-foot-11 Carlos Rogers.

It wasn’t exactly a virtuoso performance by the Bruins, but you didn’t think they would score 100 points every game, did you? Harrick, who had been hoping UCLA would get a chance to run its half-court offense, got his wish.

His opinion?

“We were sluggish,” he said.

O’Bannon was one of only two UCLA players in double figures, but not the only one in his family. Charles O’Bannon barely got there with 11 points.

“I got a lot of work to do,” Charles O’Bannon said. “I didn’t get many layups, which is where most of my points have been coming from, but we might as well get used to teams trying to slow the games down, because they’re really going to do it come Pac-10 time.”

The Bruins did a better job of running plays from their set offense later in the game and twice owned 26-point leads in the second half.

“We did all right,” Ed O’Bannon said.

But Tyus Edney, who had four assists and five turnovers, wasn’t as positive.

“We didn’t do very well,” he said.

At least Harrick proved himself right. Harrick, who had seen enough of Rogers from scouting two games on videotape, joked that he was going to tell Rogers he wasn’t getting the ball enough.

“He runs like a deer,” Harrick said.

What Harrick didn’t mention is that Rogers apparently also has ears like a rabbit and seemed distracted by taunts directed at him by a few vocal UCLA fans.

Rogers had four turnovers in the first half and five for the game and managed to get a technical foul for what he said to Ed O’Bannon after blocking his shot.

“It was just me and Ed talking to each other,” Rogers said. “It wasn’t no personal thing. I’m not going to say it was unnecessary, but it was all in fun.”

Rogers had 11 of his points in a semi-ugly (21 turnovers) first half, which ended with UCLA clutching a 42-22 lead. It seemed a lot more shaky than it looked, maybe because of how the Bruins built it.

From 13-10 seven minutes into the game, UCLA went on a 10-2 run that got going when Ed O’Bannon made a jumper from a side angle, then dunked on a fast break led by Edney.

Charles O’Bannon’s resounding dunk after taking an alley-oop pass from Shon Tarver not only made it 23-10 three minutes later, but also earned him a technical foul for hanging on the rim.

Despite eight turnovers in the first half, UCLA continued to boost its lead, probably because Tennessee State, with 13 turnovers, was having more trouble holding on to the ball than the Bruins.

The Tigers finished with 25 along with a healthy respect for the Bruins.

“We held our own against the No. 9 team in the country,” Coach Frankie Allen said. “They’re outstanding.”

They didn’t look like it in the last 3:12, during which the Bruins scored two points, but who’s counting? The only numbers that count are 3-0, no matter what speed you play.

UCLA Notes

Tyus Edney said his sore right leg is still tender and that he was bothered by the injury he received when he was kneed during the Nevada Las Vegas game. “I was off, probably it was a little bit physical and probably a little bit mental, too,” he said. . . . The Bruins made four of 12 free throws and are shooting 45.3% for the season. . . . Carlos Rogers had six points in the last 1:44 after UCLA cleared its bench. “I don’t have to prove myself to anybody,” Rogers said. Certainly not to Harrick: “He’s a creative player.”