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UCLA too much to handle for Yale

Nov 24, 2007 - 6:52 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The only time UCLA faced Yale, the Bruins were on the way to their first NCAA title. It could happen again.

Top-ranked UCLA held the Bulldogs without a field goal for over nine minutes in the first half and coasted to an 81-47 victory Friday night.

Freshman Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook each scored 15 points for the Bruins (6-0), who closed the first half with a 16-1 run take a 33-18 lead to the locker room

Westbrook had seven points in a 14-4 spurt to start the second half that pushed the margin to 47-25 and were never threatened thereafter.

The victory was dimmed by a pair of injuries to Alfred Aboya and Love.

While Love appeared to suffered a slightly sprained ankle, Aboya was hit in the eye in the first half and sent to the hospital with blurred vision.

"I'm happy about the win, but it's tempered by not knowing about the extent of the eye injury to Alfred," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "It's frustrating to have a potential injury that could keep him out for I don't know how long."

Howland said Aboya was getting X-rays for a fracture of the bone near his right eye.

"I'm worried for him, it's very frustrating," Howland said. "We had only seven scholarship players at the end. Kevin seems OK. He ... wanted to go back in. He hit some nice jumpers."

UCLA, which has advanced to the Final Four the past two season, put together a 30-5 run in just under 12 minutes bridging halftime to seize control against outmanned Yale, which lost a 72-61 decision to Stanford - another Pac-10 team - on Tuesday.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute added 14 and 10 rebounds for the Bruins, who shot 54 percent from the floor (29-of-54).

"I thought Luc had a nice game with a double-double," Howland said. "I thought they missed some easy shots which could have made it tougher on us."

Yale (1-3), which suffered its third straight loss, was led by center Matt Kyle with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

The Bulldogs hung tough early and pulled into a 17-17 tie with 9:23 to play on back-to-back 3-pointers by Nick Holmes and Alexander Zampier.

That was the last field goal that Yale would score in the opening 20 minutes.

UCLA responded with a 14-0 run punctuated by a 3-pointer from Chace Stanback to take a 31-17 lead with 2:57 left in the half.

Playing again without injured point guard Darren Collison, the Bruins got a solid effort from Josh Shipp, who had 12 points and four assists.

"He made a couple of great passes in the first half," Howland said. "He is so solid and smart and sound."