UCLA Shows USC Just How Big Gap Is : Basketball: Bruins run away quickly, 101-72, in most lopsided result of series since 1974. Ed O’Bannon has 24 points.

Little League baseball has a 10-run rule, in golf you can concede a putt, politics has concession speeches, but there is nothing in college basketball that could have helped USC escape from Pauley Pavilion a little earlier Thursday night.

For UCLA, there was nothing like pinning a little 101-72 defeat on USC to take the sting out of losing at California last weekend. Afterward, once it had stopped raining points through the hoop, Jim Harrick once again proved himself to be a master of understatement.

“Overall, we played a fine ballgame,” Harrick said.

And overall, a basketball is pretty round.

Before a sellout crowd of 12,623, Ed O’Bannon led a sextet of Bruins scoring in double figures with 24 points as UCLA made it 15-1 on the season and 8-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference. It was the most lopsided game in the series in 20 years. The Bruins won, 82-52, in 1974.

If things go right, UCLA can be a lot better, O’Bannon said.

“I think so,” he said. “We have a lot of phases for improvement.”

As for the Trojans, the phase they’re going through is sort of a painful thing. It was the sixth consecutive defeat for USC (10-8, 3-6), and it wasn’t very pretty.

George Raveling was asked when he felt the game slipping away.

“At the tip,” he said.

Maybe so, but it got even worse in the second half. UCLA’s 19-point halftime lead grew to 25, then 31 right after the Trojans made a classic blunder, which probably answered once and for all what their problem is.

They can’t count.

The Trojans got caught with six players on the floor when Lorenzo Orr was supposed to come out, but mistakenly stayed in. It turned out to be a four-point play. Tyus Edney made two free throws on the technical and Shon Tarver drove the lane for a hoop.

When Tarver left an over-the-shoulder pass for Ed O’Bannon, which wound up as a breakaway dunk, the Bruins were out of sight, 76-45, with 11:07 to go.

Orr blamed the mixup on “miscommunication.”

Said Orr: “Raveling drew up a play and I thought I saw an O for Orr to be in the game, but it was something else.”

What it was, no one knew for sure. The only thing certain was that UCLA was ringing up points, and quickly. Tarver and Charles O’Bannon had 17 points, Edney had 13 points and seven assists, Kevin Dempsey sank four three-pointers for 12 points and George Zidek contributed 10 points in 19 minutes.

Add nine steals, eight blocked shots, and UCLA’s trip to play Notre Dame on Saturday probably seems a lot smoother.

“We just have to keep our heads on,” Ed O’Bannon said.

Mark Boyd led USC with 17 points and Orr had 14, but guards Burt Harris and Brandon Martin were a combined one for 11 from the field.

The 196th meeting between the two schools actually began about a half an hour before tip-off when the USC players walked on the court to warm up. While the USC band played the fight song, Orr playfully conducted the band and was accompanied by a resounding chorus of boos from the UCLA student section.

Who could blame Bruin followers for being angry, or at least a little bit antsy? After all, the last time UCLA beat USC at Pauley Pavilion was three years ago when Charles O’Bannon was a sophomore in high school.

By halftime, UCLA seemed on its way to a graduate degree in scoring. Ed O’Bannon had 17 points in 17 minutes and the Bruins walked to the locker room with a 53-34 lead.

For the most part, they made it look easy.

At 18:22, the Bruins led, 8-2, on an authoritative dunk by Ed O’Bannon. At 13:32, the Bruins led, 19-8, on two free throws by O’Bannon. At 10:01, the Bruins led, 30-14, on a resounding dunk off an offensive rebound by O’Bannon.

And so it went for the Bruins. USC challenged just once in the first half when back-to-back dunks by Avondre Jones and Orr’s short jumpers brought the Trojans to within 36-26.

But just as quickly as UCLA’s inside defense wilted, it perked up again. Edney stole the ball twice, drained a three-pointer from the top of the circle and UCLA knocked down 12 points during the last three minutes.

Edney had six assists and three steals in the half, which he really didn’t need to do to impress Raveling.

According to Raveling, Edney and Damon Stoudamire could be, well, a lot bigger than they are if it weren’t for the fact that Jason Kidd of California happens to be playing in the same conference.

“I’m sure Tyus is praying every night Kidd goes hardship,” Raveling said.

The only hardship evident Thursday night was the fact that USC had to play at Pauley Pavilion.