UCLA Gives Duke Lesson in Higher Ed : College basketball: O’Bannon scores 37 points to spark 100-77 victory for Bruins, who will be No. 1 today.

Look out for No. 1. And No. 31.

Though the Associated Press won’t announce it until today, Ed O’Bannon took care of the details Sunday, capping one of the most rigorous--and individually dominant--five-game stretches in recent UCLA history.

“Ed was ridiculous ,” said Bruin freshman guard Toby Bailey. “That’s the way he played in high school--I used to watch him all the time do stuff like that.”

The fifth-year senior scored a career-high 37 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds to beat down Duke and cement No. 2 UCLA’s rise to the top of the polls during a 100-77 victory before 12,857 at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA, which stumbled hard last season after reaching No. 1 at mid-season, has not climbed to the top spot in the polls this late in a season since February 1979.

“It feels good, but we have to move on,” O’Bannon said of the Bruins deposing No. 1 Kansas, which lost Monday to Oklahoma. “It’s a goal, but it’s a goal we want at the end of the season.”

Sunday’s victory, which Duke kept close until UCLA’s move to a zone defense triggered a 29-5 run midway through the second half, finalized a 5-0 Bruin rumble through a grueling 11-day stretch.

In all five games--victories over Arizona State, Arizona, Stanford, California and Duke-- O’Bannon scored at least 22 points, had at least six rebounds and, as on Sunday, always seemed to have the ball when the Bruins needed to score.

“For five straight games, he’s raised the level of his game far beyond anything he’s ever done here before,” said UCLA Coach Jim Harrick. “I always wondered when he’d return to the form he showed in high school.

“And it’s been a long road.”

O’Bannon, who made a career-high seven three-point baskets in Thursday’s victory at California and scored a then-career high 31 points in UCLA’s victory over Arizona on Feb. 19, made four three-point shots Sunday, scooped in short follow shots and, in a flashback to his sky-walking, pre-knee surgery past, floated through the lane on his way to a two-handed dunk as the big run began.

“This is it,” said his younger brother, Charles. “Stepping out for threes, working hard underneath, playing defense, that’s the way Ed played in high school.”

For the Bruins (21-2), who also got 16 points and nine assists from point guard Tyus Edney and 13 points and 11 rebounds from Charles O’Bannon, what was far more significant than leap-frogging to No. 1 was the scheduling obstacle course they had to travel to get there.

Though the Bruins started Sunday looking “heavy-legged and slow,” according to Harrick, and allowing Duke (12-15) to dictate the pace of the game, it was UCLA that could not be stopped in a 60-point second half.

“I see this as a mini-tournament,” guard Cameron Dollar said. “I think this stretch was a good experience for us, getting us ready to play those six games we want to play in the tournament.”

In the first half, UCLA was dragging, and only Duke’s 13-of-31 shooting ensured the Bruins’ 40-37 halftime lead.

“We came in at the half and Kris Johnson made a good point,” said Ed O’Bannon, referring to the freshman forward. “He said we were playing like we didn’t want to lose instead of playing like we really wanted to win.”

Duke, led by center Cherokee Parks, who had 21 points, rallied to within 65-62 midway through the second half. But UCLA went to a zone, created a series of Duke turnovers, and soon, the Bruins were running to a rout.

In the second half, Ed O’Bannon had 24 points on nine of 12 shooting, three of four from three-point range.

At one point, as the blowout developed, UCLA scored on 10 consecutive possessions, closing the streak on an alley-oop dunk by freshman swingman J.R. Henderson off a pass from Edney, making the score 94-67 with 2:32 to play.

And, with only four games left in the regular season--and two weeks before the tournament pairings are announced--UCLA is banking on closing the season with the same kind of bang.

“In the past, UCLA has started off hard, and then we start to taper off toward the end of the season,” Charles O’Bannon said. “This year, everybody has focused on showing that we’re for real, that we can end better than we started.”