Bruins in a zone to rout Sun Devils

There was plenty of spectacular play by UCLA against Arizona State on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion, but just enough caution for the fifth-ranked Bruins to rout the Sun Devils, 84-51, in a Pacific 10 Conference game.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Sun Devils, 14-6 overall and 4-4 in the Pac-10, who couldn’t cope when UCLA practiced patience during an early 13-0 run that gave the first-place Bruins (19-2, 7-1) an unchallenged 18-4 advantage.

And they coped even less well when the Bruins felt free to improvise a little bit later.

“I’m really pleased with how we played tonight, especially attacking the zone defense,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said. “This team tonight against the zone did the best job ever since I’ve been here.”

Howland pointed to the fact that against a defense where the first open shot is often a long distance shot, the Bruins took only 12 three-pointers and made eight of them.

“That’s a lot of efficiency,” Howland said. “To only take 12 threes against a zone is a good sign.”

Certain that they could break down Arizona State by going inside (Luc Richard Mbah a Moute started UCLA’s initial run with a layup) and then outside (Josh Shipp made consecutive open three pointers in the middle of it), the Bruins were able to be aggressive and creative.

“Obviously we got whipped in every facet of the game,” Arizona State Coach Herb Sendek said. “Tonight was just a learning experience.”

After the Sun Devils had drawn within 30-20, Russell Westbrook stuck his hand in the passing lane and came out with a steal. The ball went on a string to Darren Collison who passed, with both feet in the air, to a running Kevin Love, who scored a dainty layup and encouraged the Pauley sellout crowd of 11,070 to its feet.

Collison said he didn’t even remember the play. Love said he meant to dunk the ball but his leg locked up a little. Yet the basket put the Bruins ahead, 34-20, and the Sun Devils seemed to lose heart while UCLA extended that lead to 46-24 by halftime.

What followed was more joyful basketball.

Love eyeballed Collison after Arizona State made a free throw and hit him with an immediate outlet pass for a fastbreak layup. Shipp made his fifth three-pointer of the game with 12:27 left while he was fading almost out of bounds.

With almost nine minutes left and UCLA up 72-38, many of the late-arriving crowd became early exiters.

Howland wasn’t quite as eager to sit down his stars. With 8:27 left, Collison was checked hard into the stanchion and stayed on the ground for a moment. Hobbled for so long by a sprained knee and a sore hip, each Collison tumble is cause for concern. But the junior point guard hopped up and made his free throws to put the Bruins up, 76-40.

Those foul shots were Collison’s 27th and 28th in a row. The school record is 36 in a row, set by Henry Bibby in 1972.

Collison wasn’t considering any personal streaks after the game though. He was celebrating UCLA’s unselfish play.

“We were making extra passes, everybody looked for the open guy and it is real fun to play this way,” he said.

Love finished with his 12th double-double (20 points and 10 rebounds), Shipp had a game-high 21 points and Collison had 14 points and nine assists with only one turnover.

Mbah a Moute, who missed both UCLA wins on the Oregon trip last weekend because of a concussion, was back in the starting lineup as was Westbrook (in place of Alfred Aboya). Westbrook had been coming off the bench since Michael Roll injured his foot a month ago.

“My purpose was that we wanted to attack the zone early,” Howland said, “and that’s our best five players from the standpoint of attacking a zone defense.”

There was a single down note afterward. Howland said backup center Lorenzo Mata-Real injured his left wrist in the final 30 seconds while taking a charge and may need an X-ray.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com