BRUINS BATTER CARDINAL DESPITE INJURIES, UCLA TRIUMPHS UCLA 71, STANFORD 54.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

Five minutes into UCLA's Pacific-10 Conference opener against Stanford on Thursday night there were more starting players sitting on the Bruins' bench then running around on the court.

Cedric Bozeman was in street clothes, a sling covering his injured left shoulder.

Beside him sat Michael Fey and his injured right ankle; next to him Ryan Hollins and his strained groin. Jordan Farmar was in uniform but locked to the bench with two fouls. So was Lorenzo Mata.

In other words, not quite the scenario the Bruins envisioned against a conference opponent that's owned them the last six meetings.

So why was everybody smiling so much at Pauley Pavilion?

A 17-point lead, that's what.

The Bruins, growing more resilient with every new disheartening MRI result plopped onto Ben Howland's desk, took apart Stanford 71-54 in one of their most dominant Pac-10 performances in years.

UCLA (11-1) won its eighth consecutive game. A win on Saturday afternoon against Cal would give the Bruins their best start since 1994-95, the last time they won the NCAA Tournament.

Arron Afflalo had 23 points to lead UCLA.

Josh Shipp, who played for the first time this season after recovering from back surgery in late September, added 11 points and scored the first three points of the game on a breakaway layup in which he was fouled.

Stanford, picked to finish second in the Pac-10 by conference coaches, had beaten UCLA six straight times and eight of the last 10. The Cardinal's last loss to the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion was in 1996-97.

The win was impressive on any level, but even more so considering big men Fey and Hollins were sidelined with injuries and the versatile Bozeman learned earlier in the day he was out indefinitely with torn cartilage in his left shoulder.

Of course, even in victory, there was some bad news for the Bruins on the injury front: Farmar left the game early in the second half with a sprained right ankle and didn't return.

What the Bruins lacked in personnel they made up for with a ball hawking defense that harassed Stanford (4-5) into 20-percent shooting and 10 turnovers in the first half, with many of the misses and turnovers converted into points on the other end.

Stanford missed its first 12 shots from the field, resulting in an immediate 18-1 UCLA lead. The Cardinal never got closer than 13 points the rest of the half and trailed by as many as 24 points in the second half.

The Bruins were just as effective on offense, shooting 60 percent from the field for the half (15 of 25) behind Arron Afflalo's 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

The loss of Fey and Hollins - the Bruins' two most experienced frontcourt players - was adequately absorbed by the combination of Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Mata, Ryan Wright, and Alfred Aboyo.

Aside from Mbah A Moute's 12 points the group didn't do much offensively, but on defense they cut off driving lanes and applied aggressive double teams on the perimeter to take Stanford out of its offense.

The Cardinal, typically one of the most disciplined teams in the nation, never seemed comfortable on offense.

Vincent Bonsignore, [phone]

vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com