Cross-Town Leaders of the Pac

In the latest piece of this hazy, crazy Bruin season that has been part roller coaster, part Rorschach test, UCLA walloped 18th-ranked Stanford on Saturday, 87-68, pulling off a 67-point turnaround from the teams’ first meeting a month ago, because: (pick one)

A) Inspired by big brother and former Bruin great Ed O’Bannon’s bristling pregame speech, and infused with his national-title level passion, Charles O’Bannon scored 23 points and collected 12 rebounds, and the Bruins were faster and hungrier than the stumbling Cardinal before 12,378 at Pauley Pavilion.

“It just seemed like something was missing,” Ed O’Bannon said after the game, after the current players credited his speech--and the added presence of Tyus Edney--for reminding them of the spirit of 1995.

“I’ve watched a few of their games, and what I’ve seen is a team that just needed a little kick or something. I guess that’s what I was trying to give them today.”

B) Still embarrassed by their historic 48-point drubbing in the teams’ last meeting, the Bruins, 13-7 overall and 8-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference, blinked away Saturday’s quick 7-0 deficit and were efficient enough to get six players into double figures in scoring.

“When it was 7-0, of course, [there were] flashbacks of what happened,” Charles O’Bannon said. “This was a must-win for us, to keep us in first place before we go to Arizona [Thursday, in the Bruins’ next momentous matchup.”

Said UCLA interim Coach Steve Lavin: “This is the most competitive, wildest, wackiest conference race in a decade--for all I know, two decades.”

Determined to hang on to at least a share of first in the Pac-10 race after Thursday’s deflating loss to California, UCLA fought back to a 10-10 tie, ran off an 11-2 surge to take a 36-29 halftime lead, then, with some heavy pressure defense and scoring from Kris Johnson, ran away in the second half.

“This game doesn’t mean that much--it just got us back on track,” Toby Bailey said. “It gave us momentum heading to [third-place] Arizona, which is what we needed. We easily could’ve spiraled down, but now we’re back on our feet.”

C) Feeding off Cameron Dollar’s ferocious energy (and four steals) the Bruin defense threw Stanford totally out of whack, harrying star guard Brevin Knight into a 6-for-16 shooting performance and a startling nine turnovers, and dismantling the Cardinal’s usually effective power game.

UCLA swarmed the Stanford post players, poked away passes, cut in front for rebounds, and generally had the Cardinal big men subdued.

“That’s what they call the old Dollar hack,” Dollar said, describing his two clean swipes from Knight as the Stanford guard flew into the lane.

“We were attacking today, kind of getting that mentality back that we’re hired hit men. We know that we’re UCLA, and everybody’s going to be hunting us. But we have to feel like we’re hunting too.”

D) All the mystical signs were in sync: The stars were aligned, the vibes were perfect, and Jelani McCoy made a 15-foot jumper in traffic.

Oh, and it probably helped that Stanford is struggling horribly on the road (it has lost four in a row away from Maples Pavilion) and got a combined seven points and 3-for-14 shooting from starting big men Tim Young and Peter Sauer.

In the first game, Young dominated the Bruins with 10 rebounds in the first half, Knight had 25 points in 24 minutes, Rich Jackson poured in three three-point baskets and Arthur Lee had 13 points.

Put nicely, that wasn’t quite repeated Saturday.

E) What, and make it so this often-bruised but resilient Bruin team doesn’t have everything come down to the last, dramatic weekend?

“We’re definitely a fighting team,” said McCoy, who continued his recent stylish play with 12 points (on six-for-eight shooting), four rebounds, five assists and three steals--the last two categories tied career highs.

“When somebody knocks us down, we get right back up. We’re not going to just fade away after a loss.”

Especially after getting barked at by Ed O’Bannon, who, though he soft-pedaled it when asked to repeat it after the game, apparently called on the current Bruins to stand up and refuse to repeat the embarrassment of the first Stanford game.

It was a roar that found an audience.

“I tried to block it out, not let myself get carried away by the emotion,” Charles O’Bannon said. “But Ed came in here and gave a pregame speech, and he had us all sweating and fired up.

“It was always in the back of my head that Ed was here, and I wanted to show him I could play some ball.”

Said McCoy: “Everybody sees Ed as the competitor. Everybody wants to be like Ed, and a lot of us took from Ed today.”