Bruins Need Urgency at Start

Maybe the UCLA Bruins ought to cut to the chase today at Maples Pavilion, marking themselves down for 25 points in the first half against the Stanford Cardinal, giving the Cardinal 30 points and getting on with planning their second-half rally.

All signs point to that scenario anyway.

Certainly there will be more desperation on the Stanford side of the court. The Bruins (23-6 overall, 13-4 in conference) have already clinched no worse than a tie for the Pacific 10 Conference title, their first in nine seasons.

The Cardinal, on the other hand, is fighting for an NCAA tournament berth. Stanford is locked in a three-way tie for third place with California and Arizona at 11-6 after a 58-56 victory over USC on Thursday. Cal plays USC today and Arizona plays Washington, which is second in the conference at 12-5. Victories by Stanford and Arizona would give both a share of second with the Huskies, and a Cal victory would make it a four-way tie.

There will also be plenty of emotion on the Stanford side since it’s the Cardinal’s home regular-season finale.

And finally, there is the perplexing play of the Bruins. They have become like the racehorse who stumbles out of the starting gate and watches the whole field gallop past him. But in the stretch, finally in rhythm, his stamina unabated, he passes horse after horse and is ultimately first across the finish line.

The Bruins have hardly looked like a conference leader in the first half of recent games. They have been outscored, 148-118, in the first half of their last five games and trailed at intermission in each case. They have not scored 30 points in the first 20 minutes of their last six games. Yet they have won four of the six and lost the other two by a total of six points.

Thursday night against Cal in Berkeley, the Bears scored the last 11 points of the first half to take a 31-20 lead over UCLA. But the Bruins opened the second half with a 17-5 run and eventually won in overtime, 67-58.

So why make it so hard on themselves?

“I want them to play great in both halves,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said. “I think the common denominator [in the recent first-half debacles] is the turnovers.”

Guard Arron Afflalo has another idea.

“After we’ve played almost 30 games, guys have got our stuff pretty well scouted,” he said.

“Teams play with a lot of energy against us,” said fellow guard Jordan Farmar. “But then, in the second half, fatigue sets in, and their shots don’t go in.”

Meanwhile, the Bruins, like a fighter who has hung on the ropes and let his opponent punch himself out, seem re-energized as the second half ensues.

“It’s a matter of life or death then,” Afflalo said. “We’ve got no choice.”

Farmar wants to change the UCLA pattern today, regardless of the emotional atmosphere the Bruins encounter in Maples.

“We can’t worry about what motives they have,” he said. “No matter how intense teams come out, we should be able to handle it.”

The Bruins’ tie for the conference title is no reason for complacency, according to Howland.

“We don’t want a tie,” he said. “We want to win outright. We want to win for our potential seeding in the Pac-10 tournament, in the NCAA tournament and in order to maintain momentum.”

So Stanford has been forewarned. Beating the Bruins for the 20 minutes and holding them under 30 points is not necessarily a cause for celebration. Rather, it’s good reason for trepidation.

*

TODAY

at Stanford, 1 p.m., Channel 2

Site -- Maples Pavilion.

Radio -- 570.

Records -- UCLA (23-6, 13-4 in conference), Stanford (15-11, 11-6).

Update -- Matt Haryasz (16.9 points a game), Chris Hernandez (14.1) and Dan Grunfeld (12.4) are Stanford’s leaders. Stanford won last season’s meeting at Stanford, 78-65.