Bruins a Soft Touch in N.Y.

Some might call it a colossal waste of time. UCLA missed two days of school and traveled 3,000 miles for a chance to end a losing streak against a team with an even longer losing streak.

Instead, the Bruins reinforced every negative stereotype of West Coast basketball Saturday in a thoroughly one-sided 71-55 loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.

Soft. Weak. Impassive.

That went for after the game too, when players repeatedly shrugged and mumbled the same three words.

Cedric Bozeman, why did you guys fall behind by nearly 20 points in the first half again?

“I don’t know.”

T.J. Cummings, what has happened to this team since its last victory?

“I don’t know.”

Dijon Thompson, you guys had no spark early on. How does that happen?

“I don’t know.”

Coach Ben Howland spent the return flight mulling over the lineup changes he said he might make after UCLA’s fifth consecutive loss. There aren’t many options, though. Perhaps Brian Morrison will replace Thompson at shooting guard to shore up the defense.

Thompson couldn’t keep up with Red Storm guard Elijah Ingram, who scored 21 points, but neither could Morrison, Bozeman or Janou Rubin. After a while, Howland must have been tempted to send in 60-year-old former Bruin star Gail Goodrich, who sat two rows behind the team.

Ingram made five of St. John’s eight first-half three-point baskets, a half that ended with UCLA trailing, 41-24.

It was the largest first-half lead of the season for St. John’s (5-13), the dregs of the Big East Conference enduring its worst season in more than 80 years. The Red Storm had lost seven in a row, its longest streak since 1918-19.

Then UCLA (9-8) came along like a big bowl of chicken soup and cured everything that ailed them. St. John’s outrebounded the Bruins, 49-30, and led by at least 11 throughout the second half.

“Even with the season they’ve had, they came in with fire and beat us soundly on national television,” Howland said.

It was especially galling for Howland, whose Pittsburgh teams routinely pounded this team. St. John’s thuggish approach is basically just Pittsburgh Lite in these parts, but the Red Storm was plenty tough enough to pulverize UCLA.

“They didn’t play as physical as the Big East teams,” Ingram said. “We took advantage of that.”

The Bruins of recent years, even during their most wildly inconsistent phases under Steve Lavin, usually turned it on for the national TV cameras. And amid last season’s 10-19 debacle, UCLA came East and beat Georgetown to end a nine-game losing streak.

But all the TV audience saw this time was abject failure. UCLA couldn’t shoot free throws, making four of 15, couldn’t keep St. John’s off the glass, giving up 16 offensive rebounds, and couldn’t score against a zone defense. Again.

St. John’s was the fifth opponent in a row to use a zone almost exclusively -- and the result has been the same each time. Only freshman forward Trevor Ariza figured out how to get an open shot, making nine of 17 for 19 points.

St. John’s plays zone only about a third of the time, but it worked so well against UCLA that interim Coach Kevin Clark said, “We might have to use it a bit more.”

UCLA stayed reasonably close until St. John’s scored the last 10 points of the first half. Cummings was scoreless in the first half for the second game in a row, and only Ariza, who had 10 points, made more than one basket for UCLA.

St. John’s cooled off from three-point range in the second half, but UCLA couldn’t dent the lead because the Red Storm got so many second and third shots. Kyle Cuffe had 15 rebounds, including five on the offensive end.

“Our toughness was an advantage we needed to have because they had the size,” Clark said. “We needed to be tough to have a chance.”

Howland has said all season that the Bruins must toughen to become winners. But the problems go beyond lack of grit. A season that appeared promising when UCLA won its first five Pacific 10 Conference games is threatening to unravel.

“We are going back to the drawing board,” he said.