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Roll helps UCLA to third straight win

Dec 18, 2008 - 7:35 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Michael Roll made sure UCLA kept on rolling.

Roll scored a season-high 12 points off the bench as the 12th-ranked Bruins throttled Loyola Marymount, 75-44, on Wednesday.

A junior swingman, Roll scored all 12 of his points from beyond the arc, hitting 4-of-5 from long range and grabbing four rebounds as UCLA (7-2) earned its first three-game win streak of the season.

Darren Collison scored 11 points and Josh Shipp added nine for the Bruins, who were hardly impressive against their winless in-state rivals.

"We don't want their first (win) to be against us," Shipp said.

UCLA shot only 40 percent (26-of-65) from the field, hitting 11-of-33 (33 percent) from 3-point range.

"I'm glad we won," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "I feel bad for the other guys. ... They're going through tough times."

Despite the poor shooting, the Bruins owned a 39-24 lead at halftime on the strength of a 23-14 advantage on the glass in the opening 20 minutes.

"We said before that the great teams do the little and basic things really well," said Loyola Marymount acting coach Max Good, who took over when Bill Bayno went on a medical leave of absence in November.

"(UCLA) played fundamentally sound and great teams expose your weakness. They showed us no mercy on defense and went after us. We shot only 25 percent and I credit UCLA's defense for that."

UCLA quickly expanded its lead after emerging from the locker rooms.

Collison scored seven points during a 12-3 run that increased the Bruins' bulge to 54-31 with 11:27 remaining in the game.

The Lions (0-11) could not find the bottom of the net for a majority of the second half, failing to earn their first win of the campaign.

LaRon Armstead's layup 3:07 into the second half was Loyola Marymount's only field goal until there was 2:10 left in the game, when Kevin Young hit a jumper to trim the deficit to 73-39.

"In the second half, I will be honest with you, I think we are getting worn down a little bit," Good said. "We are asking freshmen to play 36, 37 minutes every night. We don't have a choice. Our legs gave out on us a little."

The Lions missed 18 straight shots from the floor during their drought and finished the game shooting 25 percent (13-of-52) from the field, making only 1-of-17 3-pointers.

Armstead, the Lions' third-leading scorer, set season-highs with 18 points and eight rebounds.

"LaRon is really stepping up as a scorer and has really learned a lot in the last five six games," Good said. "Kevin played really well tonight as well and was very active. But we are asking these guys to play too many minutes."