Bruin Tape Machine

In one corner of the UCLA locker room at Staples Center on Friday night, Cedric Bozeman lay with his swollen left ankle raised on a slab. Sitting by his locker stall, Darren Collison spoke to reporters with dried blood on his mouth and two stitches in his lip. At yet another stall, Jordan Farmar pulled tape off an ankle he has sprained four times this season.

But though they sometimes may limp onto and off the court, when the clock is running, so are these Bruins, kicking their game into a seemingly higher gear with every game.

They were at it again Friday night, beating Arizona, 71-59, in a semifinal of the Pacific 10 Conference men’s basketball tournament. In today’s title game, UCLA will play California, which beat Oregon, 91-87, in two overtimes in Friday’s late semifinal.

“We are playing our best basketball at the end of the season,” said UCLA Coach Ben Howland.

Hard to argue that point. While the locker room after the game may have looked like a medical clinic, the Bruins’ performance on the court was a basketball clinic both offensively and defensively. In winning their second tournament game and sixth in a row overall to improve to 26-6, the Bruins, the Pac-10 regular-season champions, dominated the Wildcats (19-12), the preseason favorite to again win the conference title as they did a year ago.

The victory was UCLA’s third over Arizona this season, a first in a rivalry that dates back to 1923.

Led in scoring for the first time this season by Collison, a freshman point guard, UCLA shot 50% from the field despite connecting on only five of 18 from three-point range, and held the Wildcats to 41.8% shooting, including 37.5% in the second half.

The Bruins were especially effective in the paint, outscoring Arizona, 36-16.

The 59 points were the fewest the Wildcats have scored this season and the fewest they have ever scored in this tournament.

Having beaten Oregon State, 79-47, in their tournament opener Thursday night, the Bruins became the first team to hold its first two tournament opponents under 60 points.

Arizona was missing its top player, senior guard Hassan Adams, who was suspended by Coach Lute Olson for this tournament after being arrested last weekend in Tucson on suspicion of drunk driving. Forward Marcus Williams filled the gap, scoring a game-high 25 points.

The Bruins thought they might be missing Bozeman, a fifth-year senior who went out in the first half Thursday night because of the sprained ankle.

But Bozeman stayed up most of the night with trainer Tony Spino, icing the ankle every hour.

And Friday, he was able to play 27 minutes, score nine points, collect four rebounds, and get two assists and three steals.

“This is my last hurrah,” said Bozeman, a fifth-year senior. “I want to go out with a bang. I didn’t want to be in street clothes on the bench. I’m tired of that.”

Bozeman has already missed eight games this season because of torn cartilage in the back of his left shoulder.

He has also been suffering from tendinitis in his right knee, a lingering condition resulting from surgery last season.

One bit of good news for Bozeman on the medical front: The pain in his ankle has allowed him to forgot about his shoulder and knee.

“The adrenaline takes over when you are out there,” he said. “Once you stop, you really feel the aches and pains. It’s sore now. What can you do?”

Collison required stitches after banging heads with another player, but he smiled through his bruises after scoring a team- and career-high 15 points, making six of 10 shots from the field.

Farmar’s playing time was limited to eight minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. Earlier this season, that might have been cause for alarm. But Collison has developed over the season, and UCLA didn’t miss a step Friday with him at the controls.

As a result, it was ultimately the Wildcats who were feeling the pain at the end.