Stanford Silences UCLA : Basketball: The Cardinal’s Keefe scores 30 as the Bruins fall, 89-82.

Stanford had won four in a row over UCLA before Wednesday night, its longest winning streak against the Bruins since the 1940s, but UCLA’s Don MacLean was confident that the Cardinal wouldn’t make it five.

“We’ve got a little too much for them this time,� MacLean said on the eve of the nationally televised game at Pauley Pavilion.

Actually, the seventh-ranked Bruins had too little.

Period.

Stanford beat them again, getting a season-high 30 points from junior center Adam Keefe in an 89-82 victory before 7,278.

In losing for the second time in five days and the first time in nine games at Pauley Pavilion this season, the Bruins made only 44.4% of their shots in dropping to 13-3 overall and 2-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

“We really defended well,� said Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery, whose team is 10-5 and 3-2. “The defense keyed it for us.�

The Cardinal wasn’t too bad offensively, either.

Stanford made 58% of its shots.

The Cardinal hasn’t lost to UCLA since Dec. 23, 1988, with Stanford earning a pair of milestone victories in the last two years:

--Its 95-86 dismantling of the Bruins in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament at the Forum in 1989 was its first victory over UCLA in Los Angeles since 1948, the last year of the pre-Wooden era.

--Its 70-69 upset victory over the struggling Bruins last February was its first over UCLA in 25 games at Pauley Pavilion.

“We’ve played well against them,� Montgomery said Tuesday, “but everybody gets up to play UCLA.�

It would be tougher to beat the Bruins this time, he said.

“They’ve got much better team chemistry,� Montgomery said. “They’ve got a couple of guys who are willing to do the dirty work. They’ve got two premier scorers; (Tracy) Murray’s really improved and his confidence is such that he’s one of the league’s top scorers, along with MacLean.

“(Darrick) Martin has always been a really good point guard, distributing the ball well, but I think that in (Gerald) Madkins, (Mitchell) Butler and (Keith) Owens, they’ve got guys who are willing to defend and not worry too much about scoring. They do the little things that help them.

“And then they can bring (Shon) Tarver in and they’ve got another scorer, so they’ve got an awful lot of weapons.�

Maybe, but they had trouble shaking the Cardinal’s defense, which harassed the Bruins into 37.1% shooting in the first half.

“They do a good job of defending us,� MacLean acknowledged.

MacLean, especially, seemed frustrated by the aggressive play of Andrew Vlahov, who played for Australia in the 1988 Olympics.

Vlahov had been told in practice this week that he would guard Murray, but Montgomery changed his mind before the game.

“As I stared at the board right before the game, I thought that maybe MacLean would get Keefe in foul trouble,� Montgomery said. “Vlahov is such a smart defender, and I felt he could use his strength. I just had a hunch. I thought, ‘What the heck. Let’s go with what’s won before.’ �

MacLean made his first three shots, missed his next seven and wound up making only eight of 20, scoring 17 points.

Murray led UCLA with 24 points. Madkins scored 16.

Stanford, which made 60% of its first-half shots, hit the Bruins with a 15-0 run midway through the half to open a 37-24 lead.

After Keefe missed a layup that would have put the Cardinal up by 15, UCLA answered with a 12-5 run of its own, getting two three-point baskets from Murray and four points from Madkins. The Bruins closed to 42-36 on a layup by Butler, but Vlahov banked in a running jumper from the left side with four seconds left to give the Cardinal a 44-36 lead at halftime.

Murray had 10 first-half points for UCLA, Madkins nine.

MacLean, limited to six points before halftime, made two baseline jumpers early in the second half to cut the Bruins’ deficit to 55-53, but Keefe then scored a layup on a back-door play to start an 8-0 run for Stanford.

Ahead by 10 at that point, Stanford continued to run its offense, getting short jumpers and layups and drawing fouls, while UCLA, trying to catch up, continually fired up three-point shots.

The Bruins eventually abandoned that strategy, outscoring the Cardinal with a more conventional attack, 8-1, to cut their deficit to 75-71.

Bruin Notes

Athletic Director Pete Dalis met with UCLA administrators Wednesday to discuss the possibility of postponing or canceling the game because of the outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf. “Everybody concurred that we should play and maintain regular activities,� Dalis said of his meeting with assistant chancellor John Sandbrook and vice chancellors Elwin Svenson and Alan Charles. . . . Extra security was provided at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA’s Darrick Martin, on the Bruins’ 82-77 loss at Arizona last Saturday: “We thought we beat them in every facet, except the score. We made a statement that we can play with any team in the country.� . . . UCLA’s high scorer has been Don MacLean or Tracy Murray in all but one of its 16 games. . . . In its third season under Coach Jim Harrick, UCLA is 1-5 against Arizona, 1-5 against Stanford, 2-2 against Oregon State and 25-4 against its other six Pacific 10 Conference opponents.

Harrick has yet to alter his starting lineup, but said that he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of Keith Owens eventually replacing Mitchell Butler. “I could easily reverse their roles,� Harrick said. . . . Owens played a career-high 33 minutes against Arizona, scoring eight points, taking eight rebounds and blocking three shots. Harrick called him “a tower of strength.�