Bruins coast to exhibition win

Josh Shipp whipped the pass to a wide-open Arron Afflalo, who made the three-point basket 21 seconds into UCLA’s 73-43 exhibition victory over Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.

There was plenty of time later to see freshman point guard Russell Westbrook run a fastbreak about 10 seconds into his Bruins debut, to watch sophomore Alfred Aboya plant his sturdy body in the lane and push out intruders, to see another rookie, gangly James Keefe, fight for seven rebounds.

It was odd seeing Jordan Farmar, who could have been a UCLA junior if he wasn’t two games into his Lakers career, watch highlights of himself on the scoreboard screen and it was reassuring to see 96-year-old legend John Wooden smile and wave when the camera found him.

But it is the confident way Shipp finds the best place to be on the court and the well-done shooting of Afflalo that will go a long way toward determining how well UCLA does in defending its Pacific-10 Conference title and national championship runner-up status.

Bruins Coach Ben Howland said he was most pleased with “the effort” and most displeased with UCLA’s 24 turnovers.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Howland said. “Too many mistakes. And our foul shooting was not good.”

UCLA made only 16 of 28 free throws.

“We have to get our intensity up,” said Afflalo, who led the Bruins in points (17) and assists (six) on the good side and turnovers (five) on the bad.

Shipp, who missed all but four games because of a hip injury last season, had 16 points in 22 minutes and pronounced himself “a little sore but feeling good.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com