UCLA Defeats Arizona To Stay Atop Pac-10

Saturday, February 17th 2007, 2:49 pm

By: News On 6

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) _ Darren Collison scored 17 points and added a career-high 15 assists as No. 5 UCLA defeated No. 19 Arizona 81-66 on Saturday afternoon. The victory kept the Bruins (23-3, 12-2) in 1st place in the Pac-10, one game ahead of Washington State.

Josh Shipp tied a career high with 24 points for UCLA, which defeated Arizona for the fifth straight time. The Bruins scored the game's first 6-points and never trailed. Leading 35-34 at halftime, the Bruins hit 8 of 15 3-pointers in the 2nd-half to take command of the game.

Collison hit 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.

It was the second-worst home loss in Lute Olson's 24-year tenure at Arizona. The worst was a 92-64 loss to then-No. 4 North Carolina on Jan. 27.

Playing in his final home game, Mustafa Shakur scored 17 points for the Wildcats (17-9, 8-7), who lost five home games for the first time since 1986-87. The Wildcats lost a total of three games in McKale Center from November 1987 to December 1994.

Arizona fell to 4-14 against ranked opponents over the past two seasons. The Bruins, by contrast, are 8-1 against the Top 25 this season.

UCLA jumped out to a 23-11 lead eight minutes into the game. But Shakur hit a pair of 3-pointers to spark a 12-0 run to tie it at 23-23.

UCLA answered with a 7-0 run, with Shipp hitting a 15-footer and a 3-pointer, to go ahead 30-23. But Arizona scored the final 7 points of the half to pull within 35-34 at intermission.

The Bruins responded by scoring 10 of the first 14 points of the second half. The barrage began with 3-pointers by Collison and Shipp. The Wildcats came no closer than three points the rest of the way.