<p>CORVALLIS Ore. - Before the Bruins headed north for their first Pac-10 road trip, UCLA coach Ben Howland tried to send a message to his players.
<br/>Howland ran the Bruins rugged through one of the team's hardest practices of the year on Tuesday before they took off to Oregon.
<br/>It took a while for the Bruins to respond against Oregon State on Thursday, but the end result was another solid UCLA victory.
<br/>No. 1 UCLA (14-0, 3-0 Pac-10) defeated Oregon State (8-7, 0-3) with a balanced scoring attack and relentless defense that took an already lethargic crowd of 6,834 completely out of the game.
<br/>"I thought we were a little tired and lacking energy and that's my fault because we practiced really hard Tuesday afternoon," Howland said. "I went too long and that threw out our legs, in terms of our energy level."
<br/>The Bruins' lack of energy, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, was very evident in the first half. UCLA wasn't getting very much movement against Oregon State's mixture of defenses and the Bruins failed to convert some open looks when they had a chance.
<br/>Fortunately for the Bruins, the Beavers could not take advantage of many opportunities either and the Bruins took a 36-30 lead into the half.<br/>"I believe we outplayed UCLA in the first half," Oregon State coach Jay John said. "Unfortunately we did not finish plays. "Too many lay-ups and free-throw opportunities were missed."<br/>But like so many other times this year, the Bruins came out of the locker room looking like a different team in the second half. <br/>The Bruins jumped on Oregon State in the second half with intensity on both ends of the floor, extending the lead to 49-36. From then on, the game was never in doubt with both teams playing at a lethargic pace and trading baskets. <br/>That was in stark contrast to some of the Bruins' home games this season, when they were able to feed off of the home crowd's energy to extend their lead even more and put games out of reach. <br/>Still, the Bruins did play steady basketball, and for the first time all year all five starters ended up with double-digit scoring outputs while sophomore power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and junior center Lorenzo Mata combined for 14 rebounds. As a result, UCLA came out of Thursday's game satisfied.<br/>"Any win is a good performance to me," said redshirt-sophomore forward Josh Shipp, who led the team with 18 points. "We're not out to impress people, were just trying to win ballgames."<br/>"It wasn't a good game, but we won," sophomore point guard Darren Collison said.<br/>Facing an infamous Oregon crowd at McArthur Court on Saturday should give the Bruins their first test of the year in a truly hostile environment. The Oregon State crowd was quiet for most of the game and virtually all of the second half. The fact that the previously undefeated Ducks lost to USC on Thursday might even add a little extra flare for what is already a hyped national television game.<br/>"Oregon is a much-improved team from a year ago," Howland said. "All (the USC loss) does is make them that much more motivated because you never want to lose two in a row."</p>