Maine Maine/UCLA UCLA Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

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Tuesday, Dec. 21 6:00pm ET
Bruins bully on Black Bears

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HONOLULU (AP) -- Although UCLA's big men dominated the game, it was the work of the Bruins' smaller players that impressed Maine coach John Giannini.

"I was extremely impressed with the defensive pressure they put on us when they went to their small lineup," Giannini said after his Maine team was lost to the Bruins (No. 16 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) 83-62 Tuesday in the Pearl Harbor Classic.

"They made us turn it over and took us out of everything we wanted to do. It was tough to run on offense, to control the ball. For us, we can play a lot better against their big lineup because they can't pressure us as much."

But it was UCLA's front line of 6-foot-7 Jason Kapono, 6-10 Jerome Moiso and 6-11 Dan Gadzuric that did most of the damage. Kapono scored 15 points and pulled down six rebounds, Moiso had 15 and nine and Gadzuric 14 and eight.

For the game, the Bruins (5-1) had 48 rebounds -- 19 on offense -- to only 23 for the Black Bears (5-3).

"The small lineup (in the first half) is when we extended the lead," UCLA Steve Lavin said. "We wanted to press the entire year, but player losses (to injuries and suspensions) really prohibited our ability to extend defensively.

"Our small lineup brings great energy to the table and it can disrupt another team's offense."

But despite the lopsided win, Lavin still found fault with his Bruins' play, especially over the final 20 minutes.

"I thought in the second half we played very poorly," he said. "Our execution offensively was sloppy. We were up by 20 at the half and ended up winning by 21, so we basically played them even in the second half, which is not a good sign.

"The second half was an unacceptable performance."

UCLA trailed briefly in the first half, but, with the smaller lineup applying pressure, went on runs of 13-0 and 15-2 to take a 43-23 lead at halftime.

Maine shot just 9-of-28 from the floor in the half, including two 5-minute stretches when it failed to score.

At the midway mark, the UCLA front line combined for 18 points and 12 rebounds, and all 10 players had at least one field goal.

The closest Maine got in the second half was 14 points at 70-56, but Kapono and Moiso each scored five during a 10-0 run to close out the game.

Matt Barnes added 10 rebounds for UCLA, which shot 34-of-69 from the floor for the game.

For the Black Bears, Nate Fox had 23 points, Dye 19 and Julian Dunkley 10 along with eight rebounds.