Bruins close Pauley with cheers and tears

They lingered on the old court, arms waving and legs leaping and smiles widening.

The celebration was just getting started as the UCLA players raced over to the student section, exchanging high-fives and accepting pats on the back. Sophomore forward Reeves Nelson wrapped a classmate in a bearhug and hoisted him into the air.

Saying goodbye had never been so much fun.

In a fitting final tribute to their basketball home of 46 years, UCLA delivered a 71-49 victory over No. 10 Arizona on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion that wasn’t so much a showdown as a smackdown, the Bruins holding the Wildcats to their lowest point total of the season.

It was also a tear-jerker of sorts, with UCLA walk-on Tyler Trapani scoring the last basket inside the building where his great-grandfather John Wooden had guided the Bruins to eight of his 10 national championships.

“I’m still kind of baffled at what just happened,” said Trapani, who grabbed an airball underneath the basket and banked in a putback with 25 seconds left.

Normally stoic UCLA Coach Ben Howland cried in the locker room afterward and choked up twice when he met with the media, and it wasn’t because his Bruins (21-8 overall, 12-4 Pacific 10 Conference) moved into a first-place conference tie alongside the Wildcats (23-6, 12-4) with a week remaining in the regular season.

Howland was moved to tears by the symmetry of Trapani’s first career basket in the last game played on Nell & John Wooden Court before it closes for renovations.

“It fell right in his hands,” Howland said. “There’s something going on there. I really believe that.”

Nelson certainly played as if motivated by something divine, his career-high 27 points and 16 rebounds overshadowed by his defense. Nelson held Arizona’s Derrick Williams, who had scored 13 points in the first half while being defended by a variety of Bruins big men, to two points after halftime while guarding the star forward exclusively.

“I just took it as a challenge,” Nelson said. “I have a tattoo on me that says, ‘Tell me I can’t. I don’t hear you.’ ”

The Bruins had a sellout crowd of 11,986 rocking when they closed the first half and opened the second on a 22-2 run that transformed a one-point lead into a 51-30 advantage. The Wildcats had one final surge in them, pulling to within 57-48 on Williams’ only basket of the second half with 4:36 remaining.

It wasn’t nearly enough. A tip-in by freshman center Joshua Smith (17 points) sparked a 14-0 run for UCLA, which held Arizona to 25% shooting in the second half and held a 40-26 rebounding edge overall in its best start-to-finish effort of the season.

“They’ve become the best defensive team in our conference,” Wildcats Coach Sean Miller said.

Nelson hatched his plan to guard Williams on Thursday night, but Howland told Nelson he wanted to start freshman Anthony Stover on the national player-of-the-year candidate and have Smith guard Williams when Jamelle Horne was in the game because Smith would have trouble staying with Horne on the perimeter.

After Williams blistered the Bruins for a few driving layups in the first half, Nelson said he went to Howland and told his coach he was going to guard Williams the rest of the game “no matter what.”

Does he usually tell his coach what to do?

“No,” Nelson said. “It was a strong request.”

In the final minute, Howland was among those on the bench imploring the Bruins to get the ball to Trapani. When Jack Haley spotted up for a three-pointer that fell directly into Trapani’s hands, it made for the moment of a lifetime.

“What a cool way to have the last basket ever,” Howland said. “I mean, you couldn’t have written it any better.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com