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  Thursday, Jan. 20 10:30pm ET
Wildcats win seventh straight
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Arizona's youngsters played with poise to stay perfect in the Pac-10 Conference. UCLA's title hopes sank even lower.

Michael Wright scored 22 points and Gilbert Arenas added 18 as the second-ranked Wildcats scored a 76-61 victory over the Bruins (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) on Thursday night for their seventh straight win and largest ever at Pauley Pavilion.

Jerome Moiso, Loren Woods
Arizona's Loren Woods takes it up strong against UCLA's Jerome Moiso.
"The Stanford road win gave us a lot of confidence to come in here and win," Arenas said.

Wright, one of only three Wildcats to previously play in Pauley Pavilion, dominated the low post in the first half with 14 points. Arenas, a freshman from nearby North Hollywood, scored 15 points in the second half.

"Playing for the first time at UCLA was a lot of fun," Arenas said. "You see UCLA play on TV and you grow up wanting to play there. I was very nervous."

The Wildcats (16-2, 5-0 Pac-10) also got 20 points from Jason Gardner, who along with Arenas makes up Arizona's freshmen backcourt.

"Arenas was as close to perfect as you can be in the second half," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "I'm not sure if you can find two freshmen in the country that are playing better than Arenas and Gardner."

UCLA was whistled for 23 fouls and it paid for the Wildcats, who hit 19 of 29 free throws.

The Bruins didn't get to the foul line for the first time until there was five minutes left in the game. They finished 2 of 4 on free throws and were 3 of 21 from 3-point range.

Arizona freshman Luke Walton made his second career start playing for the first time at his father's alma mater. The younger Walton doesn't shoot much and he went scoreless, with four assists and three turnovers in 37 minutes.

Bill Walton, who led UCLA to two NCAA titles and 30-0 seasons in 1972 and '73, was in the stands to hear fans chant "Dad's house" at his son.

"A guy that was as critical to us as anybody was Luke Walton," Olson said. "He did a nice job of taking (Jason) Kapono out of what he wanted to do and his deflections created a number of turnovers for our defense."

The loss dealt a critical blow to UCLA, with the Bruins (10-5, 1-3) off to their worst conference start since opening 0-3 in 1987-88.

"We're still at the point where we're not playing consistent basketball. It's kind of the theme of the season," coach Steve Lavin said. "There's no easy games remaining on the schedule."

Jerome Moiso led the Bruins with 22 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. His basket early in the second half tied the game at 32 before Arizona went on a 28-13 run for a 60-45 lead with 5:41 remaining.

"We've got to keep our heads up and stick together," he said. "We can't have a letdown anymore."

Twice during their run the Wildcats had 7-0 spurts as the Bruins wasted possessions with turnovers and missed shots, including an airball by Earl Watson.

"We didn't stay poised and patient," Watson said. "We were pressing too much, too soon."

UCLA regrouped for a 12-3 scoring run, helped by consecutive 3-pointers from Kapono and a three-point play by reserve Billy Knight, to trail 63-57 with 3:30 remaining.

But that was all the Bruins could muster, with Watson, Dan Gadzuric, Kapono, Moiso and Rico Hines in foul trouble and continued carelessness with the ball that led to 26 turnovers, including 10 by Kapono.

"It was a tough loss. We played decent in the first half, then we played so bad and ended up cutting it to six," Kapono said. "They caught us on a night when we weren't hitting any jumpers and we had 26 turnovers."

The Bruins trailed by just two at halftime despite missing all 11 3-point attempts and never getting to the free-throw line in the first half when the Wildcats had only three fouls.

 


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