Bruins Find Way Out of Darkness

A subdued group of UCLA fans took their seats in Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night hoping for a ray of light to peek through the gloom of another disappointing basketball season.

By the time they filed out, the mood was considerably sunnier after the Bruins had held on for an 80-75 victory over Washington.

But it wasn’t easy. Dijon Thompson and Cedric Bozeman each made two free throws in the last 30.9 seconds after Washington had come back from a 10-point deficit in the last two minutes to pull within one.

By ending a six-game losing streak with its first victory since Jan. 15, UCLA avoided slipping below .500 and into the lower half of the Pacific 10 Conference standings. The Bruins (10-9, 6-5 in the conference) moved into a tie for fourth place with Arizona.

“It’s good to get that monkey off our back,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said of ending the losing streak.

The Bruins did it by winning the battle of the boards -- they are now 9-1 when outrebounding an opponent -- and by relying more on their reserves. Howland said he realized he was playing his starters too many minutes after Thursday’s 55-48 loss to Washington State.

“I thought our bench gave us a great lift tonight,” Howland said. “To play our best, we have to play less minutes. It was my fault for playing [the starters] for so many minutes to start the game against Washington State. This is the way we’re going to have to play.”

No Bruin played more than 32 minutes against Washington. UCLA’s reserves combined for 25 points, led by center Michael Fey with 10 and guard Ryan Walcott with eight.

Fey, a 7-foot sophomore from Olympia, Wash., had his second impressive outing against Washington after scoring 12 points in an 86-84 victory in Seattle on Jan. 10.

“I told Mike Fey after the game to just pretend that everybody in our league is the University of Washington,” Howland said. “So we’re going to do a little hypnosis or something.”

Senior forward T.J. Cummings led the Bruins with 18 points on nine-for-12 shooting and also had 11 rebounds. Asked what had gotten into him, Cummings replied, “Those losses got into me. I didn’t want to lose again.”

Howland called it Cummings’ best game of the season.

“Not only did he do it rebounding and [by] shooting the ball, but he also did an outstanding job defensively,” Howland said.

Washington (10-9, 5-6), which had its winning streak ended at five games, got a career-best 30 points from sophomore guard Brandon Roy but little else.

Although the Huskies rallied from deficits of 13 points in the first half and 11 in the second half, Coach Lorenzo Romar said he was disappointed with his team’s effort. The former UCLA assistant is now 0-4 against the Bruins.

“For whatever reason, our energy level was just not there,” Romar said. “We have a tough time matching up with UCLA because of their size, and our interior defense was lacking. UCLA got way too many easy baskets tonight.”

The Bruins shot 52.5% from the field, including 62.5% in the second half, and outrebounded Washington, 40-30.

UCLA appeared in good shape after Trevor Ariza’s one-handed dunk over Washington forward Mike Jensen for a 75-65 lead with 2:13 to play.

But Washington rallied and cut its deficit to one, 76-75, on two free throws by Roy with 38.9 seconds left before the Bruins pulled away on free throws by Thompson and Bozeman, who had committed a critical turnover with 49.6 seconds left.

UCLA played its best basketball in nearly a month in the first half. The Bruins drove to the basket aggressively, hit the offensive boards and took their biggest lead, 33-20, on a Cummings layup with 4:28 left in the half. Cummings made all seven of his shots for 14 points in the first half, when he also led the Bruins with seven rebounds.

Faced with a 13-point deficit, Washington responded with a 6-0 run while UCLA hit a cold streak before going into halftime with a 35-28 lead.

The Bruins overcame the absence of guard Brian Morrison, who sat out his second consecutive game after spraining his right ankle in practice Wednesday.