UCLA Wins 11th Basketball Title : The celebrations were spirited at sports bars across Orange County.

Blair Woodward, UCLA Class of ‘87, came spilling out the door of Legends Sports Bar on Monday night, slightly hoarse and nearly out of breath.

“I’m ecstatic, I’m elated,” she croaked just seconds after UCLA defeated Arkansas 89-78 to claim its 11th NCAA basketball title. “We’re in! This is better than beating USC in football!”

Woodward, of Corona del Mar, was among the raucous Bruin fans who made up the unquestionable majority of the standing-room-only crowd at Legends. Throughout the game, they howled, stomped, clapped and booed every Arkansas move and then broke into partisan cheers for their Bruins--”U-C-L-A, fight, fight, fight!”

By the end, UCLA’s devastating loss last year in the first round of the NCAA playoffs was almost forgotten.

“It’s sweet, it’s so sweet,” said Ken Ward, 36, UCLA Class of ’90.

Likewise, at the National Sports Grill in Buena Park, where a packed house of men and women, decked out in everything from T-shirts to jerseys to baseball caps to business suits, drowned each other out for every Bruin basket, steal, rebound and rim-rattling dunk.

Even Lynne Berardino, a USC fan from Long Beach, found herself caught up in rooting for the Bruins.

“This is L.A.,” said Berardino, who came to the bar straight from the auto upholstery business she owns. “It’s part of my home.”

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Roy Smith, 29, of Carson, showed up wearing an Arkansas T-shirt and admitted feeling out of place. Like everyone else in the bar, he was hyped up anyway.

“I love being the oddball. I’m a basketball fanatic,” Smith said.

Back at Legends, Dan Mickelsen, UCLA Class of ‘92, arrived confident. Later, though, when star Bruin guard Tyus Edney was forced out of the game in the opening minutes with an injured wrist, he became “very concerned.”

But a second-half run would break Arkansas’ back, Mickelsen predicted.

“We’re going to end up outrunning them in the second half,” said Mickelsen, who wound up being right.

Bryan Bullard, a UCLA fan visiting from Las Vegas, was more worried about the team’s coach than the players.

“The only thing that scares me is the coach,” said Bullard of the much-maligned Jim Harrick, who, for the moment at least, won back the admiration of the UCLA faithful.

More cautious was Jim Stevensen of Orange, UCLA class of ‘51, who at 67 was one of the elder statesmen in the mostly youthful Legends crowd. He was subdued at first and sidestepped any outright predictions of a Bruin victory.

“I figure they have a very good chance,” said a sage Stevensen at halftime. “But I don’t think I would have thought they would win without Edney.”

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Outnumbered, but confident too, was Richard Persohn of Corona, an Arkansas alum, who was proudly wearing a red and white Razorback hat. This year he had left his Hog hat at home.

“But I’ve got my Hog underwear on for good luck,” Persohn said, grinning.

At the end, he shrugged off the loss.

“I knew UCLA was good. But we had a great year,” he said.

John Moore, general manager of the Legends outlet in Costa Mesa, said he felt it would be UCLA’s year early in the season. All year, the team managed to pull out the close games, he said.

“They beat Kentucky in The Pond in the last second,” Moore said. “Then they beat Missouri at the buzzer. This year, it just seemed like UCLA was destined to win.”