Bruins Go to Court, Paint the Town Blue

USC Coach Tim Floyd screamed at the officials, stormed away from the scorer’s table and, en route back to his seat, angrily punted a wad of paper to earn himself a well-deserved technical foul.

He might have been happier with an ejection considering it was early in the second half of Wednesday night’s USC-UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion. That way, Floyd wouldn’t have been forced to watch the rest of the Bruins’ 66-45 victory over the Trojans, a victory that was equal parts Bruin cohesiveness and Trojan ineptness.

UCLA improved to 15-3 and maintained its hold on first place in the Pacific 10 Conference at 5-2 with the same formula that has worked for much of the season: strong defense, efficient offense and solid rebounding .

The Trojans, on the other hand, looked at times, especially in the first half, as if they were playing together for the first time. There were gaping holes in their defense, at least four Trojan passes sailed far out of reach of their intended targets, and their outside shooting game, the key to their attack, all but disappeared in the first half.

“That was real embarrassing,” said USC’s Lodrick Stewart. “I felt we were prepared coming in, but they beat us at everything we had to do: rebounding, defense, everything.”

Said UCLA Coach Ben Howland, “I thought it was the best defense we have played this season for 40 minutes.”

It was the fewest points USC has scored this season and its shooting percentage from the field (29.5%) was also a season low.

UCLA raced out to an 18-2 advantage and led by as many as 30 in coasting to victory.

The Bruins were led by Jordan Farmar’s 15 points and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s seven rebounds.

The Trojan story could be summed up by the scoring effort of their big three. Gabe Pruitt, Nick Young and Stewart combined for 17 points and shot a collective five for 25. Pruitt was one for nine, including 0 for 5 from three-point range.

“He’s very good still,” said UCLA’s Arron Afflalo, the primary defender on Pruitt. “Those stats don’t tell it all. He’ll bounce back and explode the next game.”

It was a disheartening debut in this cross-town rivalry for Floyd, in his first season at USC. But at least he gets a rematch in a month. Football coaches have been known to fear for their jobs in this rivalry after getting dominated by their counterpart across town. UCLA must wait until next season to try to avenge its 66-19 football loss to the Trojans last month.

The basketball Bruins had a new look from the beginning. Howland made a change in the starting lineup, putting Alfred Aboya in at center.

The way the game went, Howland could have started Lorenzo Mata, who is on crutches because of a broken leg and it might not have made a difference.

Farmar came out shooting, hitting two quick baskets from three-point range to give his club a lead it would not surrender.

After UCLA lost to Washington last Saturday, Howland had expressed concern in his postgame news conference Farmar had taken only seven shots and equaled his career low with three points.

The message apparently got through. Howland would not have to repeat himself.

Farmar had doubled his Saturday point total just over two minutes into Thursday’s game.

The Trojans didn’t score until the game was nearly 3 1/2 minutes old. They didn’t get into double figures until just over five minutes remained to play in the half.

The fortunes of both of these teams hinge on their perimeter game, but only the Bruins demonstrated an ability to locate the basket from more than a foot away for most of the first half. USC didn’t connect on an outside shot until Stewart hit a three-pointer 4 1/2 minutes before halftime.

USC dropped to 12-6, and under .500 in the conference at 3-4.

“I thought UCLA did a great job,” Floyd said. “They put great pressure on the guys who score for us and we didn’t respond.”