• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

UCLA continues dominance against Arizona

Jan 16, 2009 - 7:54 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- UCLA utilized its home-court advantage to continue its dominance of a Pac-10 foe.

Nikola Dragovic scored 15 points to lead five players in double figures as the seventh-ranked Bruins claimed their 10th straight win with an 83-60 victory over Arizona on Thursday.

Josh Shipp had 13 points, Darren Collison scored 12 and Alfred Aboya added 12 and 12 rebounds for UCLA (14-2, 4-0 Pac-10), which extended its winning streak at Pauley Pavilion to 15 games while downing the Wildcats for the eighth consecutive meeting.

"There's no sense for us to be on the road and win all those games in other people's places if we can't protect our court," Collison told the Los Angeles Times.

"Young players can get too excited about being at home," Bruins coach Ben Howland told the Times. "They're going to try to play to the crowd instead of just being solid. That's the main thing - that we just come out and play and not worry about playing to the crowd."

Jordan Hill poured in 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Chase Budinger contributed 14 and five for the Wildcats (11-6, 2-3), who had won their previous two games but never led in this one.

"They took us out of this ballgame," Arizona coach Russ Pennell told the newspaper. "They got deep in the shot clock and they hit some big shots."

The Bruins, who had all 11 players hit at least one shot from the field, scored the first five points of the game and never looked back, opening a 14-5 advantage on Dragovic's first of two 3-pointers 3:53 into the contest.

"We have a team where anybody could go off and get 20-plus points," Howland told the Times. "When you have that kind of balance, it really is hard to defend."

The Wildcats narrowed the deficit to 26-20 after Nic Wise hit a pair of free throws with 8:43 remaining in the first half.

However, Arizona was held scoreless over the next 3:46 as UCLA doubled its advantage.

Hill hit the first of two free throws to end the drought, but the Bruins carried a 42-28 advantage into the locker rooms courtesy of Aboya's dunk at the buzzer.

The Bruins started the second half with a 12-5 run, opening a 21-point bulge with 15:56 remaining in the game.

"We did a really good job of attacking their zone, making the extra pass," Howland told the paper. "I thought there was some really nice passing going on."

Arizona never got closer than 14 points for the rest of the contest as UCLA finished shooting 60 percent (28-of-47) from the field and hit 7-of-17 shots (41 percent) from the arc.