UCLA Isn’t Half Bad in 78-60 Win

Give Jesse Melgares some credit. He started it.

The UCLA student, a political science major, made a shot from midcourt at halftime Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion to win free tuition and school books for a year.

At that point, UCLA Coach Ben Howland might have been tempted to put a uniform on him. The Bruins, losers of two straight, were trailing the Oregon State Beavers, mired near the bottom of the Pacific 10, by six points, had shot only 37.5% from the field and were only one for seven from three-point range.

California had already beaten Washington State earlier to break a tie for the conference lead with UCLA.

But in the second half, taking aim at the same hoop into which Melgares had delivered his electrifying shot, UCLA emulated that moment over and over and over again in their best offensive performance of the year to overwhelm the Beavers, 78-60.

Jordan Farmar made a three-pointer to start off the fireworks. Then Arron Afflalo made one. Then another. Another three- pointer by Farmar. Then, after a three-point play by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Farmar made yet another three-pointer.

And the Bruins were just warming up.

When the smoke had cleared, UCLA had scored 20 unanswered points at one stage and shot 75% for the half, including nine of 13 three-point attempts, to improve to 21-6 overall and again move into a tie with Cal for the conference lead at 11-4 in the Pac-10.

“This is the most fun I’ve had playing as a Bruin,” said Afflalo, who finished with 20 points, making six of 11 from the field, four of seven from three-point range.

Farmar was the game’s high scorer with 21 (eight of 13 from the floor, including a four-for-seven three-point shooting performance of his own).

“What a great second half,” Howland said. “I can’t wait to go watch that again. I’m sorry the last game of the season at Pauley is coming up Sunday. This is fun. I wish it was still December.”

It wasn’t fun in the Bruin locker room at halftime. The players, disheartened by their cold first half, spoke among themselves without the coaches present.

“We talked about how we had been underachieving,” Farmar said. “We didn’t want to go out like that. We knew everything was in our hands and we got it done.

“Everybody was taking good shots, guys were setting screens and everything was flowing as it should be.”

Freshman guard Darren Collison added nine points in what Howland called “his best game as a Bruin.”

“In the second half, they shot us out of it,” Oregon State Coach Jay John said. “We battled, but couldn’t match their scoring.”

Nick DeWitz was the Beavers’ leading scorer with 14, but fellow forward Sasa Cuic had only six.

UCLA won the battle on the boards, 32-20.

But the most glaring difference came at the free-throw line where UCLA was 14 of 17, Oregon State (11-16, 4-12) just one of one.

“In all my years of coaching,” John said, “I’ve never had a team with just one free throw before.”

After UCLA center Ryan Hollins had gone scoreless in 22 minutes against USC last Sunday, Howland announced that the starting job would go to whomever performed the best in practice.

Senior Michael Fey won that competition, getting the starting job after playing only four minutes in the previous 10 games.

But Hollins wound up playing 25 minutes to just seven for Fey, finishing with four points, a game-high six rebounds and a key block.

Message from Howland received.