Late in the first half, UCLA senior forward Alfred Aboya stood unguarded beneath the Bruins’ basket, and senior point guard Darren Collison found him from nearly 30 feet away with a bullet pass. Aboya caught Collison’s pass, turned, leaped and slammed to give the Bruins a 20-point lead.
The baskets came that easily for No. 12 UCLA (5-2), as the Bruins cruised past overmatched Cal State Northridge (1-6) 85-67 on Sunday night at Pauley Pavilion. The win allows UCLA to enter finals week on a positive note, just three days after it fell 68-64 in a heartbreaking battle at No. 8 Texas.
“Overall it’s a good win going into finals week,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “And it came after a very disappointing loss.”
UCLA’s three guards ““ Collison, Josh Shipp and Jrue Holiday ““ led the way. Shipp and Holiday each finished with 14 points, and Collison added 13. Those three guards also combined for 16 assists. Forward Tremaine Townsend scored 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting to lead the Matadors.
Shipp played one of his best games of the season. He was able to penetrate the Matadors’ zone and create open looks for his teammates. He finished the game with six assists and also threw down a huge alley-oop from Collison in the second half.
“I was able to get some easy baskets,” Shipp said.
Holiday did all of the little things well. He made both of his free-throw attempts, snagged five rebounds and finished with six steals.
His passing ability has already impressed coach Howland, but Howland clearly prefers Collison, a veteran and an All-American, as his point guard.
“Holiday has great vision and is a very unselfish player,” Howland said. “Going into the year, when we were recruiting him, I thought he would be playing more point guard, but I didn’t anticipate having Darren Collison back for his senior year.”
Howland also praised freshman forward Drew Gordon, who finished with nine points and five rebounds in only 16 minutes of play.
The only concerns for UCLA were the Bruins’ 19 turnovers, along with several missed defensive assignments and rotations.
“We have to do a better job staying in front of the basketball,” Howland said. “That’s something that will be a continuing process, especially for our younger players.”
The win also eased some of the pain still lingering after UCLA’s loss at Texas on Thursday night.
“It was hard not to think about the Texas loss,” Collison said. “We thought we could have won the game.”
Now the team’s focus will shift to academics, as players take final exams this week.
Howland said it is usually difficult to regroup after finals week, but the Bruins still have to play DePaul (4-2) on Saturday in Anaheim, just one day after finals finish.
UCLA does not practice today and will have a brief morning workout Tuesday.
“This is a very rigorous and difficult school academically; there’s no way around it,” Howland said. “You have to recruit kids who can handle it.”