Bruins Sweat It Out : College basketball: Stanford hangs tough, but Edney scores 15 to lead No. 1 UCLA, 69-65.

How does a No. 1 team win games? The way UCLA did it Thursday night was, well, barely.

On the occasion of their first game as the top-ranked team in the nation, the Bruins threw a scare into themselves by scoring exactly one basket in the last 6:26, but held on long enough to defeat Stanford, 69-65.

“We got bogged down at the end, but those things happen,” Coach Jim Harrick said.

The Bruins remained undefeated at 14-0 (7-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference), but it didn’t happen easily. They led by 13, 64-51, with 6:26 to play on Shon Tarver’s driving layup, then spent the rest of the game trying not to land on the seats of their blue shorts.

It wasn’t as if UCLA’s jerseys were a little tight around the collar, Ed O’Bannon said.

“We hear more from you guys about No. 1 than what we say,” he said. “The trick is to play just as hard, whether you’re No. 1 or No. 101.”

For a while in the second half, the Bruins played like both.

Holding a 65-53 lead, the Bruins failed to score on their next six trips down the floor and Stanford got to within 65-62 with 1:19 left.

But George Zidek tipped in Ed O’Bannon’s misfire, and two free throws by Tyus Edney with eight seconds left kept Stanford from catching up.

Zidek risked wiping out the play with an offensive foul, but outjumped six-foot guard Dion Cross to put in the tip.

“There is a foot difference between us,” Zidek said. “There was no way I could have fouled him.”

Andy Poppink, who has made only five three-pointers this season, tried one anyway after Edney missed the first half of a one-and-one with 21 seconds left and UCLA leading, 67-65.

But Poppink missed badly and fouled Edney, whose two free throws put it away.

Edney led the Bruins with 15 points and Ed O’Bannon had 12. UCLA’s 69 points and 34 rebounds were both season lows.

Brent Williams had 24 points for Stanford (10-5, 3-3).

UCLA had won five consecutive games against Stanford, but Harrick did not have streaks on his mind. He had worries. He was concerned about what to do with Stanford’s Brevin Knight.

His main problem was defense, as in who to send out on a Knight like this. Harrick selected Edney, mainly because Knight reminded him of Edney.

“He’s got Edney-like speed,” Harrick said.

At the half, the matchup was a push--Edney had three points, Knight was scoreless.

But there were much bigger worries for Harrick, such as how to keep his front line from fouling out. Zidek, Charles O’Bannon and Rodney Zimmerman had three fouls in the first half, which ended in a 34-34 tie.

Three minutes into the second half, Zidek and Zimmerman were on the bench with four fouls. Sophomore Ike Nwankwo filled in with 15 minutes, Harrick went to a zone to save anybody else from further foul trouble and despite back-to-back three-pointers from Williams, the Bruins actually prospered for awhile.

With 5:04 to play, UCLA’s lead was 65-53, but just as suddenly as it appeared, the Bruins’ advantage disappeared.

Knight wound up with two points, nine assists, eight steals and five turnovers, but he also missed a wide-open layup down the stretch and had another layup blocked by Charles O’Bannon.

Stanford’s first threat in the backcourt since Todd Lichti left five years ago, Knight scored 17 points and had two three-pointers in last week’s upset of California.

There had been glimmers of what was to come, notably a 23-point, 11-assist game against Virginia.

It was this game that caught the attention of Harrick.

“Heck, I never heard of him until then,” Harrick said.

Stanford was unbeaten at home as it faced down UCLA, which was unbeaten everywhere.

In any event, Stanford fans didn’t seem all that impressed. The shout from the student section was “Overrated!” It was a point well-taken, at least for a while, just before the first half.

The Bruins went 5:20 with only two points, between Charles O’Bannon’s jumper at 7:46 and Ed O’Bannon’s hoop with 2:26 to go the only points that UCLA scored were on a hook by Zidek.

The good news for UCLA was that Stanford was similarly feeble. UCLA lost an eight-point lead, but should have been buried and wasn’t, probably because Stanford missed 20 of 32 shots in the half.

Until he scored six points in the last two minutes of the half, Ed O’Bannon highlights were harder to find than hairs on his bald head. He had three turnovers and missed four of six free throws, two of them the front end of one-and-ones.