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Afflalo powers UCLA over Washington

Jan 1, 2007 - 1:53 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- UCLA taught a lesson to upstart Washington.

Arron Afflalo scored 27 points and the top-ranked Bruins used to pair of devastating spurts to bury the No. 13 Huskies, 96-74, in Pac-10 Conference play.

UCLA (13-0, 2-0 Pac-10) put on a clinic by shooting 60 percent (40-of-67) from the floor to make it a lost weekend for the young Washington squad, which starts three freshmen and lost in double overtime to Southern California on Thursday night.

"We really played well today," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "That was a great team effort over a very good team. Washington has a lot of talent and will be in the NCAA Tournament."

Afflalo hit 11-of-15 shots, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range, in matching a career high in points. He scored 20 in the opening 20 minutes to help the Bruins take a 47-33 lead at the break, thanks to a 9-0 run that closed the half.

"Statistically, that was my best game, but I would like to be able to do that in big games," Afflalo said. "I mean, this was a big game, but I would also like to play like that in the NCAA Tournament.

"The game was fun the way it was played. I like that up-tempo. As long as we stay within our defensive fundamentals, we can play that kind of offense."

Freshman center Spencer Hawes scored 21 points for the Huskies (10-3, 0-2), giving him 91 in his past four games. But it wasn't enough to match the efficiency of UCLA, which scored seemingly at will.

"They were No. 1 and they played like the No. 1 team today," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "They beat us in every way possible. They forced us to have too many tunovers, where we never had this happen this season."

The Bruins put up the first six points of the second half to build the lead to 20 points, but the Huskies strung together a 16-5 run to halve a 22-point deficit to 66-55 with 10:22 to play.

That's when UCLA responded with a 12-0 surge of its own, including eight straight points by Michael Roll, to build the advantage to 78-55 with 8:08 to play.

"I hit that first shot and the guys started looking for me," Roll said. "It's a good feeling when my shot is going."

Roll and Darren Collison each finished with 15 points for the Bruins.

Jon Brockman had 13 points and 10 rebounds for Washington, which shot 49 percent (28-of-57) but committed 22 turnovers that UCLA turned into 34 points.

"I think we are much farther ahead at this point because last year, we had a lot of injuries," Howland said. "This is a very good shooting team. We shot 72 percent in the second half. Washington went into a zone in the second half and I was OK with that as long as we take good shots."