UCLA holds the line to hold off Arizona

Hamstring the Bruins. Twist a UCLA player’s knee. Try confounding Coach Ben Howland’s team with a zone.

Then watch the third-ranked Bruins keep winning the gritty way.

They did it again Saturday, this time defeating a reeling Arizona team that was swept by USC and UCLA and has lost four of its last five games, including three in a row in the Pacific 10 Conference for the first time since Coach Lute Olson’s first season in 1984.

The Bruins’ 73-69 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 12,249 at Pauley Pavilion had the feel of a blowout at times, but it was never quite out of reach, and No. 11 Arizona made UCLA earn it down the stretch.

With what had been a 12-point lead down to three with 25 seconds left, UCLA reserve Michael Roll stepped to the free-throw line for the front end of a one-and-one, only his third free throw of the season.

He made that one, and the next.

With 17 seconds left and UCLA’s lead down to three again, the Wildcats sent forward Alfred Aboya, a solid free-throw shooter in practice who was making only 53.6% in games, to the line for two.

He made both too.

“Same basket, same court, same ball,” Aboya said with a smile after hauling down a career-high 11 rebounds in his first start in place of forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who sat out the game because of a sprained right knee.

The Bruins (17-1, 6-1) weren’t perfect: Arron Afflalo, the dependable star who led the Bruins with 22 points, made only one of two with a five-point lead and eight seconds left, but UCLA was going to hang on.

“We’re used to winning,” said Afflalo, an 80.5% free-throw shooter who vowed to take care of his one-for-five lapse Saturday.

“We don’t accept losing. Losing hurts more than winning feels good.”

The Bruins have kept winning even though they have been hurting.

Last week at USC, starting forward Josh Shipp sat out the game because of a sore hamstring. UCLA won by one on Afflalo’s shot.

This time the injured Bruin was Mbah a Moute, who hurt his knee against Arizona State but might return this week.

What doesn’t beat the Bruins is making them stronger, it seems, because now they know a little more about Aboya and Roll, the sophomore who helped beat Arizona’s zone defense by making three of nine three-pointers, finishing with 13 points. Freshman James Keefe, a little-used reserve forward, also pitched in, making a three-pointer with his only shot.

Besides the boost from the bench, UCLA won with some of its usual methods.

The Bruins had to pull another of their by-now trademark comebacks, falling behind by eight in the first half before holding Arizona without a field goal the final six minutes of the half and reeling off an 18-4 run to take a 35-29 halftime lead.

UCLA won because it did better than it had lately attacking a zone, and because of defense.

Arizona (13-5, 4-4) is an offensively gifted team that has struggled lately but still was shooting 50.5% from the field. But UCLA held the Wildcats to 39.3% shooting.

“It was a great win over a very, very good team,” Howland said.

About the only Wildcats player the Bruins had trouble solving was Ivan Radenovic, who scored 20 as Arizona was held to 69 points, tying the Wildcats’ low of the season.

Combined with UCLA’s three-game sweep of Arizona last season, the victory gave the Bruins their first four-game streak against Arizona since Olson has been at the school.

“UCLA is a sound ball club,” Olson said.

The victory could have given the UCLA players reason to crow if they wished.

Marcus Williams, who was the Pac-10’s leading scorer but was held to 11 points with help from Afflalo’s defense, said when Arizona was 3-0 in Pac-10 play that his team, not the defending champion Bruins, set the pace in the league.

“We’re the standard,” Williams said. “I don’t think they’re the standard.”

Darren Collison, the UCLA point guard whose penetration and drives to the basket helped conquer the zone as he scored 14 points and added seven assists and five rebounds, resisted firing back at Williams.

“Marcus, he’s entitled to say what he wants to say,” Collison said. “It shows how tough the conference is.

“You might think you’re the best in the Pac-10, and a couple of games later, you’re down in the mix.”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com