NOW THIS: LAVIN CHEERED ON ROAD BRUINS' LOSING STREAK AT SIX, LONGEST SINCE 1948 CAL 80, UCLA 69.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

BERKELEY - The Steve Lavin farewell tour passed through town Saturday, and likely as with the remaining stops around the Pacific-10 Conference, the locals were sorry to see him go.

Two days after Stanford coach Mike Montgomery admonished L.A. reporters to take it easy on Lavin, California coach Ben Braun paused on his way out of the postgame press conference to ask how Lavin was holding up.

Several Cal players hugged the UCLA coach after the Bears' 80-69 victory in front of 11,877 at Haas Pavilion, and the Cal student section saluted him before and during the game with chants of ``We love Lavin.''

If Lavin is booed at home, he is celebrated on the road. And why not? For the half-century of poundings the Bruins have dished out - Cal once lost 52 in a row to UCLA - few citizens outside Westwood want the comeuppance to come to an end.

As one of the signs that greeted Lavin read: ``Hair gel: $5. Buyout: $1 million. Ruined program: Priceless.''

UCLA lost its sixth in a row, its longest streak since 1948, and dropped to 4-11, its worst start since 1946. They also fell to 2-5 in the Pac-10 and sit in a tie for seventh place with Oregon State.

``It is strange,'' said Cal forward Joe Shipp, a senior from Los Angeles who led the Bears with 23 points and 10 rebounds. ``I never imagined something like this would happen. ... Growing up, they were always on top. It is kind of funny seeing them at the bottom, seeing them struggling.''

Did he ever feel any pity?

``Not at all,'' Shipp said. ``I wish we could have beat them by 40.''

It looked early like that might be possible. If the Bruins were heartened by their narrow loss to Stanford on Thursday, they had a hard time showing it.

Shipp lost Jason Kapono for a layup to begin the game, a harbinger of UCLA's defensive effort. The Bruins' zone press resulted in one layup drill after another for the 25th-ranked Bears (14-2, 7-0).

Offensively, the Bruins picked up where they left off against Stanford, when they scored two baskets in the final eight minutes.

By the time Kapono sank a 3-pointer for the Bruins' third basket of the game, they trailed 27-10 just 12 minutes into the game. Moments later, they trailed by 19.

``You can sense it in the first minute or two,'' senior guard Ray Young said. ``When you can't get anybody to play on the defensive end - forget about the offensive end - you're setting yourself up for disaster. When we finally play defense, it's too late.''

In the Bruins' 11 losses, eight times they've fallen behind in the first half by at least nine points.

``I guess we need to act like we're down 20 to start the game,'' said Kapono, who shook off his shooting slump by hitting 5 3-pointers and finishing with 23 points. ``We're down 18 before we decide to start hooping. I guess we like to make the game challenging.''

Of course, one reason the Bruins are able to get back in games is because opponents no longer find it challenging themselves. The Bruins played so poorly they took the usually raucous crowd out of the game.

When T.J. Cummings left Gabriel Hughes all alone for a dunk off an inbounds play, Cal led 44-25 and started to doze off, too. After the Bears gave up two offensive rebounds and a turnover, Braun called timeout.

``He was trying to wake us up,'' said Cal forward Amit Tamir, who added 20 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bruins, quickening the tempo in the second half, closed within 47-39 on Kapono's transition 3-pointer with 15:08 to play.

But the Bruins then went scoreless for more than five minutes, missing six shots and turning the ball over three times.

There were few bright spots for UCLA beyond Kapono. Dijon Thompson, who got his first start since Thanksgiving weekend by replacing the injured Andre Patterson, had 18 points, and freshman center Ryan Hollins had four points, three rebounds and a block in 15 minutes, his most extensive action in six weeks.

Young, the Oakland native, continued his shooting woes in his final return home. He missed all five shots he took and is now in a 2-for-26 slump.

Ryan Walcott hasn't made a field goal in four games, and Cedric Bozeman was 1 for 8 and had one shot swatted into the seats by Hughes.

``We've just struggled to find rhythm, and that affects confidence,'' Lavin said. ``We're just struggling.''