UCLA Beat Pine Bluff by 69 — the Biggest Win in School History

Arkansas-Pine Bluff scored nine points in the first half on Wednesday night. Not nine in a stretch — nine in twenty minutes, at Pauley Pavilion, against a UCLA defense that treated every pass across half-court as a problem to be solved with two bodies. No. 9 UCLA won 106–37, and the 69-point margin is the largest victory in the history of the program. The old record had been set three times across three decades. It had survived into a fourth, and then a Wednesday buy game in November took it down.

The game was decided before it was ten minutes old, and the numbers still sound made up. UCLA opened 13–0 in the game's first 5:04. Pine Bluff's first points were a pair of free throws with 14:32 left in the half; its first made shot did not come until the 13:29 mark. Then came a 20–0 run and a 33–4 score, and by halftime it was 51–9. The Golden Lions made 3 of 21 shots in the half, missed all nine of their threes, and committed 21 turnovers — more giveaways than shot attempts was within reach. Follow the game in the Game Center.

The nine points carry their own history. It ties the fewest UCLA has allowed in any half going back through the 1975-76 season, the year after John Wooden retired — the only match is the nine Howard managed in a first half at Pauley in December 1983. The 42-point halftime margin is the Bruins' largest since at least 1996-97, as far back as the school's own box-score check runs; the previous best in that span was 34.

Mick Cronin has been building what he calls a "nuisance press," long forwards Joe Philon III and Nikola Kusturica at the front of it, and on Wednesday it produced 19 steals — two short of the program record — and turned 30 Pine Bluff turnovers into 45 points. UCLA scored more points off turnovers than Pine Bluff scored, full stop. Point guard Trent Perry, who ran the night with 11 points and a career-high 11 assists, was asked about the first half afterward. "Speechless," he said.

The record itself is worth pausing on, because of whose names were holding it. UCLA had won by 65 points three times: against the Los Angeles Police in December 1946, against New Mexico in December 1954, and against Portland in January 1967 — the last of those by a team built around Lew Alcindor, Lucius Allen and Lynn Shackelford, on its way to a national title. A 64-point win over Texas A&M in the 1971-72 season and a 61-point win over Morgan State in 1999 also stood between this team and history. Wednesday's Bruins passed all of it, and the lead touched 70 in the final three minutes, when a Markell Alston three made it 101–31.

Six Bruins scored in double figures, and the freshman led them again. Nikola Kusturica scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, his second straight game as UCLA's top scorer; through three games he is averaging a team-high 18.7 points and shooting 62.5 percent from the field. Jaylen Petty had 16, Azavier Robinson a career-high 15, and Eric Dailey Jr. 13 with a team-high four steals. Trent Perry's 11 assists came with 11 points for the first double-double of his career. Philon scored 10 with six rebounds and three steals, and has now made 13 of his 16 shots this season. As a team, UCLA assisted on 29 of its 40 baskets and shot 13-for-28 from three.

Pine Bluff's side of the box score reads like a misprint, which is its own kind of credit to the press: 14-for-51 from the field, 2-for-20 from three, and 37 points in total — the fewest UCLA has allowed in the modern era. Macaleab Rich was the only Golden Lion in double figures, with 11. Cronin, for his part, spent his postgame talking about buy-in rather than records. "I haven't had a bad day coaching these guys," he said. "They want to do the right thing… They're totally bought in. Now, it doesn't mean we're going to win, but it makes it fun."

Context matters for a 69-point win over a SWAC team in November, and UCLA's first week supplies some. The Bruins are 3–0, and the schedule has not been only this: they opened the season by beating then-No. 5 Arizona 84–75 in Las Vegas — Previously was there for that one — and put 114 on North Florida in a 51-point home opener on Friday. Wednesday's record is a buy-game record and should be filed as one. It is also, now, the biggest number in the book, and nobody in the building on Wednesday was confused about that.

The homestand continues Monday, when Long Beach State comes to Pauley for a 7 p.m. PT tip on the Big Ten Network, with Cal State Fullerton behind it on Wednesday. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0–3) stays in Southern California to play at California Baptist on Friday, in the first of three straight games out here; the Golden Lions do not play a home game until the middle of December. They will be telling the 51–9 story for most of it.