Flat and unhappy, Bruins win

It was a leisurely stretch of competent basketball that pushed UCLA to its unbeatable lead over road-weary underdog Oakland University on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

There was no dominating dunking or resounding rebounding or showy shot-making to carry the top-ranked Bruins to their 74-53 win over the Grizzlies (6-7) of Rochester, Mich., who made their fourth stop in a five-game traveling show.

But there was an 18-0 run over the final 4 minutes 12 seconds of the first half and the first 2:23 of the second that pushed UCLA from a 21-19 lead to a 39-19 advantage in front of 8,612 unimpressed fans who earlier had let go a few grumpy boos.

The win did keep UCLA (9-0) unbeaten if not completely happy.

“We’ve got to clean up our act right now,” said point guard Darren Collison, who had a team-high 15 points in 27 minutes.

Collison was speaking about slow starts and getting outrebounded and consistently crooked foul shooting.

“We will not get away with that,” Collison said.

In the spirit of the holiday season, let’s say Pauley was half full for the opening tip. And that included 44 singers from a local middle school who performed the national anthem, and most of Kevin Love’s Lake Oswego (Ore.) High team sitting in the front row.

Love is UCLA’s trophy recruit for next season and the center nearly took a nasty fall down the uneven steps on the second level of Pauley.

“Wow,” Love said. “That was scary.”

Those stairs often cause a couple of people to fall and several more to slip. Most of them aren’t 6 feet 10 and 250 pounds.

To his credit, Love stayed until the end. He may have noticed his inside skills would have been helpful. For example, UCLA was outrebounded, 38-33, and Oakland had 14 offensive rebounds.

“That’s a heck of a weight program they’re on,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said. “Every one of those guys was well-built. When we didn’t double, their post kid gave us big trouble.”

That would be Shawn Hopes, a 6-7, 275-pound senior who finished with a game-high 17 points and five rebounds. Though solidly built, he is not particularly fast; UCLA will see many post men in the Pacific 10 Conference bigger and quicker than Hopes.

Although the Bruins never trailed, they were ahead only 21-19 with 4:12 left in the first half after a three-pointer by Oakland forward Derick Nelson.

About a minute later, Vova Severovas missed a layup that would have tied the score.

Some top-notch Howland foot-stomping and 12 consecutive points later -- the final two on a driving layup by Collison with 1.4 seconds left -- the Bruins had a 33-19 halftime lead.

It grew to 39-19 before Hopes made a five-footer in the lane to end a 6:35 scoreless streak for the Grizzlies.

“It’s been a long week off for us,” said Arron Afflalo, who scored 14 points. “We did come out a little flat.”

Howland said the Bruins didn’t block out well under the boards. It was the second game in a row they were outrebounded and if that continues, Howland said, “We’re going to lose.”

Lorenzo Mata had only two points and one rebound, though Howland said his starting center missed two practices last week because of a left knee bruise.

Only forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12 rebounds) went aggressively after the ball.

“We’ve been emphasizing the running game in practice,” said swingman Josh Shipp, who had 13 points and six rebounds. “Maybe that’s part of our problem with rebounding, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

Most of the fans had trudged out of Pauley when the public address announcer exhorted those left to come back Tuesday for “our next exciting home game.” That would be against Sam Houston State. Howland said the Bearkats employ the Princeton offense. Nice and slow.

diane.pucin@latimes.com