UCLA Rips USC With a Passion

UCLA delivered a blast from the pass--25 pretty passes, to be exact--romping and rollicking its way around, through and over USC on Wednesday.

The ninth-ranked Bruins beat USC, 101-84, before 12,357 at Pauley Pavilion, and extended UCLA’s combined basketball and football winning streak over the Trojans to 14 games.

Wednesday’s whomping gave the Bruin basketball team a 7-0 mark over their cross-town rivals since the 1994-95 season, a statistic the Bruins did not seek to diminish.

“It’s probably the most enjoyable thing to do--to beat SC,” said Bruin senior Kris Johnson, who scored a game-high 20 points and chipped in a career-high-tying five assists to help UCLA to a season-high 25 assists.

“They talk a lot of trash, they try to play dirty, and they always think they’re going to beat us. We realize we can’t let the football team down.”

Said UCLA center Jelani McCoy, who wore No. 51 after his usual No. 34 jersey was lost or stolen Wednesday: “We don’t want to be the team to lose.”

It was clear from the beginning of this one that the streak was not going to be challenged by a Trojan team that played a leaky zone defense, turned the ball over freely and struggled to make a jump shot.

“We didn’t have anybody play tonight,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “People we depended on didn’t come through.”

Jeff Trepagnier led the Trojans with 18 points, but 16 came in the second half, when the game was all but decided.

Seeming to pick up from Saturday’s second-half rally in the loss to Stanford, the Bruins (14-3, 5-2 in Pacific 10 Conference) never looked rattled or raspy.

In a departure from the past few weeks of play, the Bruins abandoned all of their stubborn, one-on-one offensive tendencies, didn’t get anybody in foul trouble, actually got 10 men into their rotation and made a majority of their three-point shots.

“This is a really simple game,” UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said. “When we pass the ball, we’re a pretty good team.”

Before Wednesday, the Bruins were averaging only 15.3 assists a game. They had 13 by halftime, and would have had more if Lavin hadn’t gone to his deep bench midway through the second half.

Johnson had four assists in the first half alone, after recording only 10 in his first 12 games.

“When I passed it to the guys, they were knocking down their shots,” said Johnson, who also had a team-high seven rebounds. “It was just good basketball--going inside and kicking it back out, the things we haven’t been doing much this year.”

Bruin freshman Baron Davis, who fouled out of his last two games, played despite a sprained toe, and did not commit a personal foul until the second half. Davis had six assists and three steals, and made two of his four three-pointers, after starting the conference season making only one of his first 12 from that distance.

Overall, UCLA made 39 of its 60 field-goal attempts--a 65% mark, echoing its school-record scorching of USC two years ago, when the Bruins made 73% of their shots in a blowout victory.

“We were making one or two extra passes and getting a great shot instead of maybe settling for a mediocre one,” Lavin said.

After USC (6-11, 2-5) took a 12-10 lead, UCLA scored on 11 consecutive possessions, making all 10 of its shots from the field (including three from three-point distance) and making both of its free throws during the run.

Even after Davis committed a turnover to end the rush, the Bruins scored on their next three possessions, giving them a 39-16 lead with about five minutes left in the half.

UCLA made 18 of 25 first-half field-goal tries (72%), compared to USC’s 12-for-32 mark (37.5%). The Bruins also made nine of 16 three-point tries--the most they have made this season.

By the time Toby Bailey completed a mid-air, left-hand catch of a Davis pass, had switched to his right hand, then spun in an over-the-shoulder flip off the backboard, UCLA was up, 64-35, with 16:04 left in the game.

“The pass was a little too low or a little too far away, so I just had to create something different,” said Bailey, who had 16 points and six assists in only 25 minutes of action. “I was having one of those games.

“When it went in, I tried not to act too surprised.”