UCLA mauls Stanford, 97-63

Oh what a difference a weekend makes.

The Bruins brushed off a couple of rough games earlier this month by blowing out the Bay Area teams at Pauley Pavilion. On Saturday, Stanford was the victim by a score of 97-63. Including Thursday's match-up against Cal, the Bruins' average victory was by 24.5 points.

On the stat sheet, two things popped out. UCLA won the turnover battle, 19-13. Although not a huge disparity, the Cardinal came into the game ranked 16th in the nation with an average turnover ratio of +4.1. UCLA also clamped down on shooting in the second half. Stanford was hitting 52.2% in the first half, but only 26.7% in the second. UCLA jumped from 51.7% before heading to the locker room to 74.2% after.

Stanford, which entered the game averaging 74.9 points per game, had just 55 with less than five minutes left in the contest. UCLA led 41-30 at the half, then went on a 21-4 tear out of the locker room to bury The Farm.

"We may be reverting back to past years where we're a very good second half team," said Coach Ben Howland. "Obviously that's when you want to be really good, if you had to choose between one and the other. But we want to be good for 40 minutes."

UCLA has been better than good. They haven't given up a lead for 80 consecutive minutes.

—Adam Rose