UCLA wins in uneven match

This 67-61 UCLA victory over Arizona State on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena was full of holes.

In the first 15 minutes, only Lorenzo Mata and Arron Afflalo scored. Forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, last year’s Pacific 10 Conference freshman of the year, never did.

Afflalo had 15 points in the first half and not another until the Bruins fell behind, 49-39, then fashioned a 14-2 run. Josh Shipp, who has made only two of his 19 three-point attempts over the last eight games, sat with his head down after his younger brother, Jerren, made his second three-pointer of the night to put Arizona State up, 47-39.

The No. 5-ranked Bruins (22-3, 11-2), in first place in the Pac-10, avoided the embarrassment of allowing Arizona State (6-19, 0-14) its first league victory.

Afflalo, who finished with a game-high 24 points including all six of his free throws in the final minute, was not happy with the Bruins’ tentative attack against the Sun Devils’ zone defense.

“In the second half, especially, we got away from attacking the zone,” Afflalo said.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland suggested his team needs to become more willing to take chances when the opponent decides to control pace and tempo and dares the Bruins to solve the zones.

“When I was a player,” Howland said, “I salivated when I saw a zone. You have to not be afraid to make mistakes when you see the zone.”

The game started well for UCLA when point guard Darren Collison and center Mata proved they were feeling better. Mata scored UCLA’s first three baskets and Collison assisted on the second of those.

Collison had missed the game Saturday when UCLA was upset by West Virginia. He had a strained left shoulder. And Mata missed the second half of that game with a left hip strain.

It took 15 minutes for someone other than Mata or Afflalo to score for UCLA, when Michael Roll made a jump shot. Collison finished the first half with a flurry, with seven points in the final three minutes, including a buzzer-beating layup that gave the Bruins a 34-31 lead.

But instead of building on the momentum of Collison’s exuberant last sprint, the Bruins played the first 10 minutes of the second half without enough defensive intensity, according to Afflalo.

Jeff Pendergraph scored a layup, Allen Morill put back an offensive rebound, Afflalo traveled and Howland called a timeout.

Immediately, Derek Glasser made a three-point basket, the Sun Devils were ahead, 38-34, and Pendergraph, Collison’s teammate at Etiwanda High, was pounding the court begging his teammates for defensive intensity.

By the time Jerren Shipp made his three-point basket and Antwi Atuahene beat two UCLA defenders for a layup, the beleaguered Bruins trailed, 49-39, with 11 minutes to go.

The climb back was started by UCLA backup center Alfred Aboya, who rebounded a missed Afflalo three-point attempt and scored. Aboya was fouled, missed the free throw and that turned out well for UCLA because Shipp was back in the game and energized. Shipp gathered in Aboya’s missed free throw and slammed the ball in.

“What got us going was Josh’s dunk,” said Collison, who finished with 18 points, three assists, a turnover and a giant bag of ice on his sore shoulder. “When he came in and got us that dunk, that got us going.”

The UCLA victory became inevitable when Collison made back-to-back three point baskets to tie the score, 49-49, but it never came easy.

Mbah a Moute was excused from his 0-for-6 shooting game because he had taken a Pendergraph elbow in his right eye. By the end of the game, the eye was half swollen shut.

Arizona State Coach Herb Sendek said: “Obviously, when you have a 10-point lead in the second half at home and you don’t win, you are disappointed. But I thought our team really stepped up and met the challenge.”

So did the Bruins in their own way, not the easy way, but the winning way.

diane.pucin@latimes.com