A Fun Run for Edney and Bruins : College basketball: Point guard has career-high 28 points, Pac-10 record 11 steals and nine assists in 137-100 rout of George Mason.

When everybody else was harried, hurried and galloping out of control, Tyus Edney was gliding.

When everything else had been pushed a step past confusion, Edney, 5 feet 10 and built for speed, was calm--and still going faster than anybody on the floor.

“I’m so used to it, he doesn’t seem like he’s going that fast to me,” said teammate Ed O’Bannon. “He zips and dodges everybody; to me it’s old news.”

Old news, same result.

In a game that lived up to its go-go-go billing Thursday night, Edney foiled George Mason’s attempts to outpace UCLA, leading the Bruins to a 137-100 victory before 10,072 at Pauley Pavilion.

The 137 total was the second highest in UCLA history--trailing only the 149 points the Bruins scored against Loyola Marymount and the same Paul Westhead shoot-’em-up system in the 1990-91 season.

The senior point guard juked past full-court traps and dribbled through double teams and sprinted his way to a near triple double--a career-high 28 points, nine assists and a Pacific 10 Conference record 11 steals.

With Patriots trying to get up the floor as quickly as possible, Edney stepped in front of inbounds passes at least five times, pretty much mangling George Mason’s fast break.

“Seemed like they were always looking for their guards on the outlet,” Edney said, “and I was able to anticipate pretty well.”

After an edgy first half in which George Mason scored 57 points and trailed by 14, a couple of quick Patriot scores in the opening moments of the second narrowed the gap to seven.

But a couple of Edney steals early in the second half keyed a 22-10 UCLA run that widened the Bruins’ lead to 95-74 with more than 12 minutes to play.

With freshman guard Toby Bailey making open shots on his way to a 22-point night and Ed O’Bannon cleaning up the boards and finishing with 14 rebounds and 23 points, the Bruins outscored George Mason by 23 points in the second half, holding the Patriots to 43.

Forward G.C. Marcaccini led the Patriots with 19 points, and guard Donald Ross made six of 13 three-point shots.

“I liked the second half a lot better than the first half,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “A lot better basketball.”

UCLA crashed through the 100-point barrier on Marquis Burns’ follow with 10:35 to play.

By the five-minute mark, the only question left was whether UCLA (5-0) would meet Harrick’s goal of keeping the Patriots (4-2) under 100 points. Harrick had said that unless George Mason scored fewer than 100, the Bruin players would spend the next practice sprinting.

The Patriots came into the game as the nation’s leading scoring team with an average of 117.4 points per game.

With less than a minute to play, and George Mason stuck at 98, two big blocks by freshman center omm’A Givens made it close. But Curtis McCants’ two free throws lifted the Patriots into triple-digits with 20 seconds left.

“We came into the locker room saying that Coach said they couldn’t score over 100,” O’Bannon said with a smile. “I guess we compromised.”

Harrick, blaming himself for some of the first-half defensive lapses because he kept some players in the track meet for too long, said his players would only have to run half as much as he’d intended.

“We could have held them under 100 if I chose to do that,” Harrick said.

At halftime, Edney already had seven steals, tying the school record, and led all scorers with 19 points. He broke the school steals record five seconds into the second half and broke the conference record before eight minutes had elapsed in the half.

“Tyus Edney kind of single-handedly got them going,” said Westhead, the George Mason coach.

The unofficial coup de grace was Charles O’Bannon’s over-the-shoulder slam with 3:48 to play. His free throw made the score 122-88. O’Bannon was the fourth Bruin to get into the 20s.

Maybe the Bruins, who shot 52.5% and would have shot better if center George Zidek hadn’t missed back-to-back slams, would like to keep playing at this kind of frenetic pace?

“I like the running game, and I think our players like that style of basketball,” Edney said. “But a game like this is fun, that’s all.

“When you play better teams, you have to run your half-court offense as well as the break.”