Bruins Cool Off, but Still Pull It Off : Basketball: They get first real challenge, but hold on to beat North Carolina State, 81-75.

Chilly from an eight-day layoff and from a slippery gym floor laid atop an ice rink, the UCLA Bruins did not play their best basketball of the season Tuesday night, 3,000 miles from home. They didn’t need to, defeating North Carolina State on sheer talent, 81-75.

Ed O’Bannon equaled his season high with 24 points and Tyus Edney bettered his with 18, but the Eddie & Edney Show was almost not enough for the eighth- ranked Bruins (7-0), who got sloppy in the last two minutes and let the Wolfpack get within four points.

“Got a little hairy there toward the end,” O’Bannon said.

But the Bruins were so much better from the beginning, ahead, 9-2, after two minutes and never letting North Carolina State closer than four the rest of the night.

Only 9,100 fans braved freezing rain to attend the grand reopening of the expanded, 23,288-seat Greensboro Coliseum, site of one of college basketball’s greatest games, North Carolina State’s 80-77 double-overtime victory over UCLA in the national semifinals on March 24, 1974. Members of that Wolfpack championship team were honored at halftime, among them David Thompson, 7-foot-4 Tom Burleson and 5-6 Monte Towe.

Even UCLA Coach Jim Harrick had to return 33 tickets because of the weather along the Eastern seaboard that prevented more than half of 60 friends and relatives from attending a planned reunion.

They missed a performance that Harrick gave mixed reviews.

“We played hard, we competed, but we didn’t play intelligently,” Harrick said. “I was really disgusted with our play in the last five minutes there.

“Some of the passes we threw, I’m still trying to figure out. Charles (O’Bannon) played like a freshman for the first time tonight. I’m glad he got that out of his system.”

While Charles was scoring only six points over 29 minutes, he did dunk after stripping the basketball from Wolfpack guard Ricky Daniels at midcourt with 3:08 remaining. The play gave the Bruins what appeared to be a safe 75-65 advantage, except it turned out to be their last basket of the night.

Next time downcourt, Charles O’Bannon made a clumsy, casual pass that resulted in a turnover. After that, he missed a short bank shot with 1:53 to play. Both were big possessions.

Then, when Kevin Dempsey flipped a careless pass that caught Ed O’Bannon looking elsewhere and went right through his fingers, UCLA again gave up the ball. Lewis Sims drove the baseline with 1:20 to play, scored to make it 75-71 and forced Harrick to call time out, the game suddenly in danger after UCLA had been in control throughout.

The slippery surface was a factor, although UCLA players said the floor had been twice as bad during practice the day before. A minor-league hockey club plays in the Coliseum, which fell months behind in its remodeling project and remains a mess of construct-ion debris and malfunctioning clocks.

“At practice, you could scrape your finger along the floorboards and come up with ice on it,” Ed O’Bannon said.

Even so, in spite of cold hands and last-minute errors, UCLA’s players committed a season-low nine turnovers, playing with finesse until the end.

It took six free throws in the final 51 seconds to put away North Carolina State (4-5).

“You have to factor in UCLA’s talent,” Wolfpack Coach Les Robinson said. “There was great quickness and defensive work on UCLA’s part. That’s one of the best fast-breaking teams I think you’ll see. They can pass the ball the length of the court like nobody I’ve seen. Jim Harrick’s done a magnificent job with them. He’s got all the qualities he needs--good shooters, a big guy and a heck of a fast-breaking guard.”

UCLA even had to limit starting forward Shon Tarver to 17 minutes because of a swollen ankle, but he came through with 10 points nonetheless. Center George Zidek couldn’t buy a basket, but did contribute a club-high nine rebounds.

“We were basically without Tarver because he’s on one leg and hasn’t practiced lately,” Harrick said. “And I know we’re on the road and rusty. But that doesn’t excuse everything. Maybe you can get by a Houston playing on talent alone, but you can’t expect to get by everybody. We need to turn it up a notch.”

To which Edney said: “That’s true. Maybe we needed a game like this before conference, to wake us up a little.”

Unbeaten but determined to improve, UCLA is idle until its Jan. 6 game against Oregon at Pauley Pavilion.

* USC FALLS: South Florida held off a USC rally for a 64-61 victory, ending the Trojans’ six-game win streak. C4