Bruins cruise past Weber State

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Even if Gonzaga had managed to defeat Indiana Thursday night, things would not have become any easier in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

In fact, they would have become much, much tougher.

Second-seeded UCLA, playing just before the Bulldogs faced the Hoosiers, overwhelmed 15th-seeded Weber State 70-42 and won its first-round game going away.

The Bruins (27-5) were on track to be a top seed in this tournament, but two straight losses coming in cost them the top spot in the West Region.

It did not, however, cost them their winning ways in the NCAA tournament.

“I’m really happy with where the team is right now,” UCLA small forward Josh Shipp said. “I think we have a great chance to make some noise in the tournament. As long as we stay together and play as a team, we’ll be OK.”

Whatever ills came out of the consecutive losses to Washington and California were nowhere to be found, as UCLA got settled in early and dominated Weber State in every way imaginable.

Nowhere was that more obvious than in the play of Pac-10 Player of the Year Arron Afflalo, who scored three points in the conference tournament loss but then had 22 against the Wildcats.

“I think all this gets blown up so much,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “He had a poor game in our last game. We’ve already talked about it, gone through that. I expect him to play well, and obviously he did.

“He’ll play even better on Saturday.”

UCLA even got a good game from point guard Darren Collison, who sprained an ankle in practice Tuesday but still played and had 14 points and eight assists.

“I thought he showed a lot of character by getting treatment, doing all the right things so he was as healthy as possible to help the team,” Shipp said.

Weber State, Howland’s alma mater, was physically outmatched on the floor, and only one player managed to score in double figures – guard Dezmon Harris had 10 points.

The Wildcats were within one point, 15-14, with 8 minutes left in the first half. But once UCLA ironed out what few problems were there, it cruised. By halftime, the lead was 18.

After the game, Howland spoke confidently about his team’s prospects, knowing that in Pac-10 play it showed it could beat many styles of play.

“Whoever we play on Saturday … we can adjust to any style we need to adjust to,” Howland said. “We can play against Washington State. We can play against Arizona.”