UCLA 105, Portland 67
Saturday December 14, 2002By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) Michael Holton's Portland team couldn't do what Brad Holland's San Diego squad did to UCLA 2{ weeks ago. The Pilots never even came close.
Dijon Thompson scored a career-high 23 points and UCLA defeated Portland 105-67 Saturday to get the Bruins to .500 after starting the season 0-2.
Under Holland, a former Bruin player and assistant, the Toreros stunned the Bruins 86-81 in overtime in UCLA's season opener.
Holton had a more humbling return to Pauley Pavilion. He played in the 1980 NCAA title game for the Bruins and was an assistant for five years with UCLA coach Steve Lavin. He's in his second season after a 6-24 rookie year.
``Like coming home to me,'' Holton said of his return. ``I'm a part of the UCLA basketball family and I've always been treated as such. I was treated that way today across the board.''
The Bruins (2-2) weren't very generous hosts. They needed just five minutes to build a double-digit lead they never relinquished against the overmatched Pilots, who have never beaten UCLA in three meetings.
``Our big advantage was our size,'' Lavin said. ``We were able to exploit that against second shots. We're making progress.''
Portland (3-3) lost to a Pac-10 team for the third time, having been beaten by the Oregon schools in its two previous games. The Pilots shot 25 percent, a season-low against the Bruins.
Ray Young added 14 points and T.J. Cummings had 13 for the Bruins.
UCLA shot 59 percent and outrebounded Portland 33-8 in the first half.
``It quickly became a struggle and a challenge,'' Holton said. ``We certainly had a rebounding problem. UCLA was certainly explosive on the boards. We're a young team. We still have to find a way to be more consistent.''
Portland trailed by five points when the Bruins put the game away with a 29-7 run to take a 41-16 lead. Thompson had seven points in the spurt when Jason Kapono, Jon Crispin and Ryan Walcott each hit 3-pointers.
Thompson came off the bench for the second straight game after starting UCLA's first two games.
``It's frustrating,'' he said. ``I got to make the best of my minutes.''
Freshman Donald Wilson scored 14 points for Portland before fouling out with 9:10 left. He returned from a one-game suspension for not following the team's academic rules.
``They're bigger and have a lot of athleticism,'' Wilson said. ``I still think we played hard. We didn't get many second chances. We stuck to our game plan, but they controlled us pretty well.''
The Pilots never rallied, allowing Lavin a rare chance to clear his bench. All but two of UCLA's 15 players scored. They shot 56 percent, controlled the boards 61-31, had eight steals, seven blocks and 20 turnovers.
``We were sharp in our execution,'' Lavin said. ``They faced us on a night when we were clicking.''
Fans began filing out with 10 minutes left and the Bruins ahead by 40 points. They topped 100 points for the first time at home since beating Morgan State 100-39 and Iona 105-73 in consecutive games in 1999.
The rout didn't come close to the record for biggest victory at Pauley, which was 65 points against Portland on Jan. 20, 1967, the last time the teams met.
Sophomore Andre Patterson made his season debut for the Bruins with 11:09 remaining in the game. He was declared academically ineligible before the start of fall quarter. After attending junior college, he made grades and was readmitted Friday.
Patterson drew cheers for a big block on Patrick Galos a minute later, but he heard the loudest applause for a dunk off a fastbreak feed from Janou Rubin. He finished with three points, two blocks and two steals in seven minutes.
``I knew I was coming back. I just have to balance it out, books and basketball,'' he said. ``I got excited when we were up by 30. I thought, `I'm going to get some minutes.'''
It was also a homecoming for Portland assistant Matt Gordon, who was a student manager for UCLA's 1995 national championship team.
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