UCLA decimates USC in 107-73 victory

If only USC basketball scrimmaged in silence.

Back in October, a reporter overheard and printed what coach Andy Enfield said after stopping play in the Galen Center’s practice gymnasium.

“We play up-tempo basketball here,” Enfield said. “If you want to play slow, go to UCLA.”

Whether Enfield meant the jab as a cure for preseason grogginess or as a not-so-Freudian slip of his actual beliefs is unknown, but on Sunday, Pauley Pavilion’s scoreboard showed a UCLA team that simultaneously took exception and disproved its greatest pseudo-critic. UCLA decimated USC 107-73 in the two teams’ Pac-12 opener, improving to 12-2 for the first time since the 2008-2009 season.

The Bruins defeated the Trojans in record fashion, tying the school record for most points scored in a game against USC set on Dec. 30, 1966. Following the game, UCLA coach Steve Alford showed restraint in a room full of reporters when asked about what kind of message the emphatic win sends.

“We just try to do what we do,” Alford said. “We just try to control what we can control, and that’s our locker room and our guys and getting better.”

Chants of “just like football” rang through Pauley Pavilion’s rafters in the closing minutes of a game that, from the 11th minute onward, never was within double digits. Indeed, just like the two schools’ football matchup from late November, it was the same story of an overblown USC coach’s comment preceding a lopsided score.

And what a lopsided score it was.

Sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson continued his trend as a walking triple-double, contributing a team-high 23 points. He also led the Bruins in rebounds with 12 and assists with five. Sophomore guard Jordan Adams went 8-of-13 from the field for 21 points, reaching the 20-point threshold for the eighth time this season, while freshman guard Bryce Alford pitched in with a career-high 20 points.

Reaching its highest point total in a single game this season, UCLA scored in a multitude of ways. The Bruins drained 11 three-pointers and scored 44 points in the paint, doing so in rapid succession and at nearly a 58 percent clip.

“Well, that’s one of our main things on offense, running,” Bryce Alford said. “When we get D-stops like we did in the first half … we’re real dangerous. I think we showed that today, especially in the first half.”

Facing a USC (9-5, 0-1 Pac-12) team with two starters, freshman forward Nikola Jovanovic and senior center Omar Oraby, as well as one reserve, senior center D.J. Haley, standing 6-foot-10 or taller, the Bruins responded well, finishing the game with a plus-six margin in the rebounding game.

“We did a much better job on the backboard,” Steve Alford said. “We didn’t give them the shots in the second half to get back in it.”

In the closing minutes of the game, it showed in the Trojans’ body language. During a stoppage in play, the Trojans didn’t bother huddling and simply waited for the signal from officials to return to the court.

“I don’t think we quit,” Enfield said. “For some reason it didn’t look like the same team we have been over the last three weeks. I don’t know if it was emotional or if they were nervous, but we really made some very unusual turnovers for us.”

For a UCLA team that looked much improved with a week to prepare following a down-to-the-wire win last Saturday against Alabama, things will become much more difficult in much less time. No. 1 Arizona visits Pauley Pavilion Thursday, undefeated through 16 games.

“We still have to do the same things to prepare for Thursday,” Anderson said. “Practice, watch film, look where we made mistakes and get ready for our next game.”