UCLA’s Dunks Slam the Door on Houston : College basketball: Charles O’Bannon leads the way to Bruins’ sixth consecutive victory, 93-72.

Consider the psychology of the dunk. Done correctly, it can be a withering experience for those dunked upon.

Go ask an expert such as Charles O’Bannon.

“You get a dunk, it brings the other team back to reality,” O’Bannon said. “Then you get another dunk and they say ‘Wow, they’re playing so well.’ There’s not much you can do.”

This is pretty close to how the Houston Cougars felt Monday night after getting blown out by UCLA, an experience shared by five teams before the Bruins’ 93-72 romp at Hofheinz Pavilion.

For UCLA (6-0), it was a mini-dunkathon. There were eight dunks in all, but none more important than the one O’Bannon threw down to start the second half.

At the time, Houston was within 39-31 and staying close because of its hustle, not to mention taking advantage of the absence of Shon Tarver, who needed to rest the ankle he sprained Saturday night against Louisiana State.

“We had them thinking,” Houston forward Rafael Carrasco said.

It didn’t last too long. At 41-31 after a couple of free throws, O’Bannon got the ball on a breakaway and put down a two-handed dunk with a slight rim swing.

After another Houston turnover, O’Bannon got out on the wing again and wound up with a fast-break layup for a 45-31 lead.

The Cougars cut it to 47-39 before Charles nailed a three-pointer and assisted brother Ed O’Bannon on a dunk of his own. Cameron Dollar’s fast-break layup made it 54-39, Charles O’Bannon’s jumper on the break made it 56-39 and the Bruins were off and running.

Actually, they were already doing that. UCLA Coach Jim Harrick thought the younger O’Bannon did a nice job of getting things in motion.

“Charles really jump-started us to begin the second half,” Harrick said.

The rest of the way was cake. UCLA’s lead was 20 points on Marquis Burns’ dunk, 22 points on a dunk by Charles O’Bannon and 25 points on Rodney Zimmerman’s short jumper from the side with just less than three minutes to play.

Harrick seemed relieved afterward.

“Boy, I tell you, to play without Tarver and get a win here is real comforting,” said Harrick, who listed what the Bruins miss without him.

“About eight rebounds, the best defender we have and about 16 points,” he said.

Lucky for Harrick he has a few people who can step in and play.

Ed O’Bannon led the Bruins with 18 points, Charles had 16 points and four others scored in double figures, including Burns, Dollar and Zimmerman.

Burns had 11 points in 19 minutes of relief for Kevin Dempsey, who started for Tarver. Harrick also found an interesting backcourt combination when he used Dollar with Tyus Edney, and they put together 26 points--14 by Edney--and 17 assists--nine by Edney.

“Coach had a lot of confidence in our bench,” Ed O’Bannon said. “We didn’t have Tarver and that obviously hurt us a little bit, but it turned out all right.”

Indeed it did. The Cougars (2-5) tried just about everything. They ran, they slowed it down. They played zone, they played man to man. Everything worked about the same, which is to say not very well.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us,” Coach Alvin Brooks said. “We felt the key to their whole offensive scheme was to contain Tyus Edney, and we didn’t do it.

“And the O’Bannons . . . well, they are major league. They’ll be in the NBA.”

At the present, they’re not going anywhere except back to Westwood and a break. The Bruins don’t play again until Dec. 28 against North Carolina State in Greensboro.

By then, Tarver said he will be ready. There is also the possibility of more dunks. Alert the psychologists.