TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; With six seconds left in the first half and the Bruins leading by eight, Josh Shipp snared a defensive rebound near the Bruins’ 3-point line and glanced upcourt.
For a moment it looked as if he would settle for a desperation shot, but then he saw Darren Collison streaking toward the basket and realized he had enough time to make a pass.
But Shipp’s toss flew several feet behind Collison, who stumbled as he adjusted to haul it in. With time expiring, Collison stepped back and drained a 3-pointer.
The play, though successful, didn’t go as smoothly as it might have. But, as they seemed to do all night Thursday, the Bruins shot their way out of trouble.
No. 4 UCLA (25-3, 13-2 Pac-10) overcame a sluggish start to bury Arizona State (17-10, 7-8 Pac-10) 70-49 behind a combination of tough defense and a surprising barrage of 3-point shooting.
The win was UCLA’s ninth in its past 10 games and keeps the Bruins one game ahead of No. 8 Stanford for first place in the conference.
The Cardinal (24-3, 12-3 Pac-10) squeaked out an 82-79 win in Seattle against Washington on Thursday night.
“This was a very important win for us,” coach Ben Howland said. “We really were struggling offensively in the first 10 minutes. We finally got into a flow, and what started it again for us was our defense.”
Despite the lopsided final margin of the victory, the Bruins and the Sun Devils spent most of the first half locked in a defensive struggle.
The two teams were knotted at 11 after 15 minutes of play, and neither team seemed able to establish much offensive rhythm.
That’s when Collison hit another 3 ““ this one his second of the night ““ to give UCLA a lead it would never surrender.
Collison had four 3s in the half, and he finished 5-of-6 from 3-point range. His long-range shooting ““ combined with Shipp’s 4-of-8 performance from beyond the arc ““ helped stretch the Sun Devils’ zone defense, creating more openings for the Bruins’ post players in the second half.
“Where we stand is that we hold our ground, just do what he have to do, (and) play defense,” Collison said. “We maintained against their run, and we did a good a job of opening (the zone) up with the 3s.”
Freshman center Kevin Love was the principle benefactor of the Bruins’ outside shooting.
Despite a slow start and facing frequent double-teams, the freshman center finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, Love’s 17th double-double of the season.
“(The Sun Devils) had to pick their poison a little bit,” Love said. “We were hitting shots, and if they were going to double- or triple-team me inside, they were going to leave (our shooters) open. We hadn’t been shooting a good percentage ““ they did double me inside ““ so we just knocked down 3s and that was the game.”
UCLA’s accurate shooting ““ they shot 24-of-49 from the field as a team, and 10-of-20 from 3-point range ““ was a welcome change for the Bruins, who have struggled offensively in many of their recent games.
“I thought our defense did a good job of holding us the last few games,” Collison said. “We played good defense this game, but fortunately we shot the ball well when we got open.”
Arizona State guard Derek Glasser had an even simpler assessment of UCLA’s combination of defense and shooting.
“They’re tough to beat already,” Glasser said. “But when they hit 50 percent from 3, it’s almost impossible.”