Bruins Recapture the Crown : College basketball: UCLA wraps up first Pacific 10 championship since 1987 with 85-77 victory over Arizona State. MacLean scores 25.

The letdown UCLA feared was looming at halftime.

The eighth-ranked Bruins, who defeated second-ranked Arizona in an emotional game Thursday night, were tied, 46-46, with Arizona State at the end of the first half Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. They needed to beat the Sun Devils to win the Pacific-10 title outright.

When Arizona State took a 51-48 lead early in the second half, UCLA shook off the doldrums and responded with a 13-0 run that broke the game open.

“At halftime I told our team we needed to pick it up defensively and be more patient on offense--make one more pass and take a better shot,” Bruin Coach Jim Harrick said. “It seemed to have worked.”

Don MacLean scored 25 points in his last game at Pauley Pavilion as UCLA went on to defeat the Sun Devils, 85-77, and win their first conference title since 1987.

The Bruins took the court minutes after USC defeated Arizona, 70-69, and knew a loss would mean sharing the Pac-10 title with the Trojans, who beat them twice this season.

“Knowing that SC won made us focus more on the game,” MacLean said. “We thought we might have a letdown after Thursday night.”

USC finished second, followed by the Wildcats, who won the title the last four seasons.

Because the conference doesn’t have a postseason tournament, UCLA also earned the Pac-10’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

UCLA (25-4 overall, 16-2 Pac-10) led, 85-71, with 45 seconds remaining before Arizona State (18-13, 9-9) scored the last six points in the last 31 seconds.

After a hot-shooting first half, Arizona State tried relying on the outside shot but made only four of 16 three-pointers.

“We ran out of gas and UCLA’s zone was a factor,” Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said. “In the second half, we didn’t work hard enough to get the ball inside and we shot the three-pointer too quickly.”