AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

The sixth-ranked UCLA Bruins domin-ated Oregon State from the start Thursday night and beat the Beavers 84-49 in a game where coach Ben Howland was able to go to his bench early. "It's always good to get a rest, especially coming down the stretch," said Bruins guard Nick Collison, who had 14 points and nine assists.

Freshman Kevin Love had 11 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes, just missing his 16th double-double for the Bruins (23-3, 11-2 Pac-10).

"That'll keep me with fresh legs for Saturday," he said.

Love was looking ahead to the game with Oregon, his father Stan's alma mater, where their family was targeted with ugly treatment by Ducks' fans in UCLA's 80-75 victory last month.

It's OK Love was looking ahead, so was Howland.

"We have a huge game on Saturday," Howland said. "Everyone is fighting now for NCAA tournament berths and seedings. We know Oregon is going to come in here and give us their very best game. They're right on the edge of making it or not."

In other games involving ranked teams on Thursday, it was: No. 10 Xavier 75, Duquesne 48; No. 17 Washington State 59, Arizona State 47; and No. 21 Notre Dame 82, Pittsburgh 70.

Russell Westbrook scored 17 points for UCLA on a night none of the Bruins played 30 minutes. Howland went to his bench with 7 minutes left, giving rare time to freshman Chase Stanback and sophomores Nikola Dragovic and Mustafa Abdul-Hamid.

Josh Tarver scored 10 points for Oregon State (6-20, 0-14), which lost its 16th in a row overall and seventh straight to the Bruins.

The Beavers barely surpassed their lowest point total of the season, 44 against Southern California on Jan. 24. They shot 34 percent, an opponent's season-low for the Bruins.

UCLA shot 55 percent from the field, its best effort since hitting 57 percent against Arizona on Feb. 2. The Bruins had shot no better than 34 percent in their previous two games against Washington and USC.

They dominated the boards 43-24, went 15-of-19 from the free throw line and piled up a season-high-tying 20 assists to Oregon State's six.

UCLA took a 10-4 lead, helped by Collison's 3-pointer and five straight points by Love.

"They got away really fast," Oregon State interim coach Kevin Mouton said. "I would not be surprised if they make it back to the Final Four."

The Beavers got within one on a 3-pointer by Omari Johnson before UCLA ran off 14 consecutive points for a 24-9 lead.

"There were a couple times where we lost focus and they got a couple easy baskets," Collison said. "We can't afford that."

© 2008 The Associated Press