University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Cs-Northridge
Men's Hoops Downs CS Northridge, 114-97
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES - Travis Reed doesn't worry about whether he's going to start anymore. Once he gets in the game, he's as good as any of the players who fill the first five spots in UCLA's lineup.
Reed scored a career-high 21 points off the bench, missing just four field goals, and Baron Davis matched his career high with nine assists as the 12th-ranked Bruins defeated Cal State Northridge 114-97 Saturday night.
"I'm getting just as much time anyway," said Reed, who played 20 minutes. "The more I play, the more confident I get. I feel great right now."
The Bruins (6-2) trailed twice before running off 20 straight points to put the game away midway through the first half. They are 52-4 in nonconference games at Pauley Pavilion in the last eight years.
"The bench played extremely well. We had a couple of games where they didn't bring energy and it cost us," UCLA coach Steve Lavin said. "We played hard for a sustained amount of time."
Northridge (6-4) has never beaten UCLA in four meetings, although the Matadors kept it close for the first 10 minutes. They led twice and were never behind by more than five until UCLA's game-breaking run.
Derrick Higgins led Northridge with a career-high 25 points and Greg Minor also had 25 points, including a career-high seven 3-pointers.
"When they had that spurt in the first half, I felt it get away from us," Minor said. "We were overmatched. Now I know why they are ranked so high."
The Matadors were without No. 2 scorer Rico Harris, who's missed four games because of an injured hip.
"Rico is our man. He does everything for us - fills the middle, scores," Northridge coach Bobby Braswell said. "I don't know if we would have won with him, but he sure would have made a difference."
Reed led seven Bruins in double figures, including Earl Watson with 15 points and Ray Young and JaRon Rush with 14 each.
UCLA led by 33 points with three minutes remaining before Northridge took advantage of Bruins reserves to cut the deficit to 17 points. For much of the second half, the Matadors got no closer than 23 points.
"We shot quick, missed easy shots and they transitioned well off our misses," Braswell said. "We got into a track meet with them."
The Bruins went from trailing by one point to leading by 19 midway through the first half. UCLA ran off 20 unanswered points, including five by Rush, for a 44-25 lead while forcing the Matadors into 20 of their 23 turnovers. UCLA scored 11 of the last 13 points of the half to lead 57-33 at the break.
"We lost our focus really early," Higgins said. "We didn't pressure on defense and we were terrible on the boards (40-27 difference). Rico could have helped tonight."
With Davis directing the offense, UCLA kept rolling in the second half as the Bruins shot a season-high 65 percent from the floor to overcome 24 turnovers.
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
