Bruins roll past Cardinal

LOS ANGELES — For the second straight game, UCLA started strongly. The fourth-ranked Bruins faltered a bit in the second half again, too.

Led by Lonzo Ball’s 21 points, UCLA held off Stanford for a 89-75 victory Sunday night.

The Bruins were never in serious trouble, but they showed signs of a letup over the final 20 minutes just as they had against Cal on Thursday.

“We’ve just got to put two halves together and we’ll be fine,” Ball said. “We’re 16-1 and we still have a high ceiling.”

Bryce Alford added 17 points and TJ Leaf had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Bruins (16-1, 3-1 Pac-12), who improved to 10-0 at Pauley Pavilion. They hit 11 three-pointers, led by Ball and Alford with four apiece.

“The good thing is we’ve seen ourselves get better in a lot of areas from the start of the season to now,” Alford said. “The way we start games has been a lot better. It’s a long season, it’s a grind. We’re not going to be perfect in January. That’s not the goal.”

Michael Humphrey had a career-high 27 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out in the last two minutes for Stanford (8-8, 0-4) in his first double-double of the season.

“It’s special place to have a career high but it would have been better if it were in a win,” Humphrey said. “But we are getting close as a team. We are on the right track. Our second half was the best half that we’ve played in a long while. They may have been the best defensive team that we’ve played this season.”

The Bruins dominated the first half, shooting 53 percent on their way to a 48-30 lead at the break. They made eight threepointers in the half, with Ball hitting two in a row and Leaf following with another 1½ minutes into the game.

Stanford shot better in the second half when it outscored UCLA 45-41. The Cardinal cut their deficit from 20 points down to 61-50 on two free throws by Cameron Walker, as close as they would come.

“They made a run in the second half but it was more of us not executing what we wanted defensively,” UCLA head coach Steve Alford said. “We got lazy defensively.”

Not long after, the Bruins pushed their lead back to 19 points on two free throws by Ball that capped a 7-0 run.

Stanford hosts Washington State on Thursday.