UCLA shows fierce effort

Arron Afflalo took UCLA’s first shot Saturday, a 20-footer from outside the perimeter of Arizona’s 2-3 zone defense. The pass from Darren Collison hit Afflalo’s hands at just the moment Afflalo was free to turn and shoot unguarded. The basket was good.

In neck-whipping quickness, Collison fed Luc Richard Mbah a Moute for a layup and passed to Josh Shipp for another. Just that fast the Bruins staggered the Wildcats’ defenders and, for two UCLA players, it was the beginning of personal-best efforts.

Fifth-ranked UCLA won its fifth straight game over 19th-ranked Arizona, 81-66, Saturday at the McKale Center in a Pacific 10 Conference game.

It was the second-worst home loss for Arizona in Lute Olson’s 24 years as coach. The worst came last month when North Carolina beat the Wildcats, 92-64. It was also the first time since Olson’s first season that a Pac-10 duo has come to Tucson and swept the Wildcats (USC beat Arizona on Thursday).

The Bruins (23-3, 12-2) kept their hold on first place in the league and made a strong case in a nationally televised game that they deserve an NCAA tournament No. 1 seeding. The Wildcats (17-9, 8-7) are tied for fifth in the Pac-10 with Oregon, which lost at Stanford on Saturday.

Shipp, UCLA’s sophomore forward, finished with a career-high-tying 24 points plus four rebounds, two steals, two assists and the praise of his taskmaster coach, Ben Howland, of Shipp’s defensive toughness. Collison, the sophomore point guard, had a career-high 15 assists (10 in the first half) plus 17 points, four rebounds and only two turnovers in 35 minutes.

When the Bruins have pleased Howland, the coach speaks in a louder voice and a rolling cadence. “This is a great win on the road here,” Howland said. “Shipp had a tremendous game. Collison had 15 assists and two turnovers.”

This was a game UCLA took control of immediately. Consecutive three-point baskets by Collison gave the Bruins a 23-11 lead in the first eight minutes. Arizona drew within two, fell behind by eight, then scrambled back to trail only 35-34 at halftime. Howland’s only criticism of his team was lamenting that the Wildcats converted a couple of offensive rebounds in the last 90 seconds.

An exhilarating Shipp slam dunk gave UCLA a 45-38 advantage with 17:07 left. The rest of the afternoon was a rollicking demonstration of how to attack zones and demoralize defenders. Collison made three-pointers twice on the last click of the 35-second shot clock and Michael Roll made threes twice near the end of offensive possessions.

“Those are the easy ones,” Collison said of the clock-beaters. “You know you have the ball, the clock is down, you know you have to shoot. That’s when I’m most relaxed.”

It was the all-around play of Shipp that had all his teammates rejoicing. Last year Shipp missed all but four games while recovering from hip surgery. Uncertain shooting has marked his slow-moving comeback -- he was under 18% from three-point range over the last eight games -- and the appearance that he was missing a step of defensive quickness and an ounce or two of rebounding ferocity.

“When Josh plays like this,” Collison said, “we’re tough to beat.”

Shipp said an emphatic “no” when asked if he had lost confidence in his offense. Why not? “Because I know I’m a good shooter,” he said.

Olson said he admired much of what UCLA did to his team.

“The thing that’s impressive about them is that they compete on every second of every possession on both ends,” he said. “I think we got a lesson taught to us today, we’ll see whether that pays off. We started out and got ourselves in a hole, but we did a good job of battling back. Then we came out in the second half and they zapped us.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com