The Bruins Get Rocked, Jacqued and Jayhawked : College basketball: Kansas trails by 15 at the half, then Vaughn leads burst that blows away UCLA, 85-70.

UCLA did not reintroduce itself as a major power Saturday afternoon, but got halfway there.

For 20 galloping minutes, the Bruins were faster, smarter and better than the No. 2-ranked Kansas Jayhawks, gunning out to a stunning 19-point lead that was still 15 when the halftime buzzer sounded.

Then, with UCLA poised for a revitalizing victory, the Bruins got chased down and blown apart.

Before the roar of 16,300 at Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas scorched UCLA, 59-29, in a second half full of overpowering sound and furious play by Kansas junior point guard Jacque Vaughn, accelerating to an 85-70 victory.

Kansas (3-0), which will move into the top spot in the rankings because No. 1 Kentucky lost, passed UCLA for good with 9:24 left with a 32-16 rush--including two 9-0 runs--that never waned.

“That had to be one of the most important games of my career,” said Vaughn, who went to Muir High in Pasadena and was very aware of Kansas’ all-time 0-8 record against UCLA before Saturday. “It’s kind of overwhelming, you’re looking at a deficit of 15-16 points and come back and have the confidence you can come back all along. . . . “

Vaughn scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, including a breathtaking, running, 360-degree twirl around UCLA’s Cameron Dollar and layup that gave Kansas its first lead of the game, 55-54.

If UCLA wasn’t staggering under the pressure of the Jayhawks’ surge--and the crowd’s thunder--before that play, the Bruins clearly began to sag after the Vaughn spin.

“After I shot that layup, I could see it in their eyes,” Vaughn said. “In the first half, they were bumping chests and jumping up and down, and in the second half, I looked in their eyes and there was a little bit of doubt.”

Though UCLA looked crisp and creative in the first half, when the Jayhawks scored on nine of their first 12 second-half possessions (to get within nine, 53-44), then switched to a zone defense, the Bruins could not respond--and spent much of the time complaining to the referees.

In the Bruins’ next 13 possessions (over an eight-minute span) after Kansas went to the zone, UCLA had trouble finding open spaces or making open shots, scored only four points, and the nine-point lead turned into a seven-point deficit.

“We just took a couple of shots that didn’t go in, a couple of things didn’t go well, and they took off and we kind of lost our composure after that,” UCLA guard Toby Bailey said.

“It really wasn’t the zone that did anything to us. By the time they went to the zone, they already had the momentum and it just kept going.”

Bruin Coach Jim Harrick said his team let Kansas set the tone early in the second half, then was not emotionally ready to fight all the way back against the Jayhawk zone--especially with forward J.R. Henderson (12 points on four-of-13 shooting) in foul trouble and frustrated by the referees.

“We missed three easy shots [against the zone], J.R. got into foul trouble, and it kind of fell off from there,” Harrick said. “I think we lost our legs a little bit and got worn down.

“But I saw some encouraging things. I’m disappointed that we lost, but not devastated.”

The encouraging things happened in the first half, when the poised UCLA players ran the offense, forced Kansas into bad shots, outrebounded the Jayhawks, 27-16, and dominated the inside play, taking a 41-26 lead.

Freshman center Jelani McCoy continued his strong start with a first half that included 10 points on five-of-six shooting, two blocked shots and seven rebounds. He ended up with 14 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.

And forward Charles O’Bannon was the one Bruin who stayed aggressive the whole game, ending with a team-high 22 points.

For a team that began the season losing two of three in the Maui Invitational to unranked teams, then struggled against Cal State Fullerton, the first half Saturday was a revelation.

“That’s how we were playing last year, with that same intensity,” Bailey said. “At least we know we can play with anyone in the country. If we can just work out some things, we’ll be all right.”

Said Harrick: “I certainly think we competed harder than we competed for the games in Hawaii. If we continue to compete this way, we’ll sustain some things. But when you lose three seniors like we did, sustaining is something we need to work on.”

On Saturday, it was Vaughn, who has been touting his new almost-vegetarian diet and trim body, and Kansas that did the sustaining--and the joking.

“I told Jacque that if he didn’t have a good game today, I was going to make him get off that new diet and eat some red meat,” Kansas Coach Roy Williams said. “Since he’s started that diet, he hadn’t played one game.”