Despite Effort, Bruins Emerge Victorious : College basketball: They seem merely to go through the motions, but come away with 89-73 victory over Ducks in Pac-10 opener.

So what was the matter with UCLA in its game against Oregon on Thursday night?

Did the Bruins get caught looking ahead to Oregon State? Did they think those were the Mighty Ducks they were playing? Were they bored or what?

“I don’t have a reason,” said UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, who went on to describe the Bruins’ performance.

“Not very good,” he said.

The final score will show an 89-73 UCLA victory in the Bruins’ Pacific 10 Conference opener, but the result was so ordinary that it probably left sort of a nagging feeling among many of the 10,116 at Pauley Pavilion that a team slightly better than Oregon would have won.

“All I know is that if they’re the No. 6-ranked team in the country, then we’re all right,” said Oregon guard Kenya Wilkins.

Chances are pretty good UCLA is going to be all right, too, even if the Bruins were immensely mediocre for one night.

The offense, such as it was, received its major contributions from Ed O’Bannon and Tyus Edney with 15 points, but also from backups Marquis Burns with 11 points in 18 minutes and Cameron Dollar, who had five assists in 13 minutes.

After that, the ranks thinned quickly. Harrick shuffled players as if he were playing cards. No one was safe from Harrick’s hook, including Shon Tarver, who got yanked late in the game after he was called for traveling when he attempted a behind-the-back dribble.

Said Tarver: “Uh, I think he was a little mad.”

Sure, Harrick was a little peeved, but he managed to spread around his displeasure.

“You’ve got to do some things right,” he said. “We didn’t do some things right. . . . I didn’t like our effort by some guys. We didn’t play with any emotion, we didn’t have any effort.

“Everybody tried, we just weren’t effective.”

If Makhtar Ndiaye, who watched the game from a third-row seat, still hadn’t made up his mind between UCLA and Michigan, the first half probably was enough to have him checking the flights to Ann Arbor.

Ndiaye, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound freshman ineligible to play at Wake Forest, wore a green sweat shirt and a bemused expression before the game as a smiling Harrick busily schmoozed with him on the bench.

Once the game started, nothing seemed nearly so amusing. UCLA led, 43-33, at halftime, but wasn’t all that impressive and the margin seemed a lot closer than that.

There were signs of difficulty. Like two shots attempted by Charles O’Bannon. Like the same amount of rebounds as Oregon. Like trouble running the offense.

Harrick’s lineup midway through the first half: Ike Nwankwo, Kevin Dempsey, Burns, Dollar, Rodney Zimmerman.

Notice anything unusual, like no starters in the group?

Anyway, it worked. Not three minutes later, UCLA’s lead jumped from nine points to 16.

The Bruins had one more run in the half, a 13-4 flurry, noteworthy mainly because of a four-point play produced by Edney and a three-point rainbow jumper by Tarver.

It got ugly fast. There were 11 points scored in the last 2:33 by the Ducks, including a feathery driving jumper by Wilkins, who was allowed to drive the length of the court in the last four seconds and score at the buzzer.

The Bruins hit the snooze button again in the second half. After Tarver’s jumper to start the half, UCLA had only one other basket to show for the first 5:16.

Soon afterward, George Zidek exited with one more point than fouls, the Bruins got nothing out of their offense except free throws and there was a certain restlessness growing in the stands at Pauley Pavilion.

Charles O’Bannon listed the problems: “We didn’t execute our offense, we didn’t execute on defense, we didn’t execute our game plan.”

Burns’ tip-in of a misfire by Charles O’Bannon gave UCLA a 63-49 lead that could scarcely have been less impressive.