Led by 18 bench points, 12 from freshmen center Joshua Smith, the UCLA Bruins have a 29-26 halftime advantage over the St. John's Red Storm in a non-conference contest at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. So far, senior guard Dwight Hardy has scored a game-best 16 points for St. John's, which has beaten UCLA six straight times.
St. John's (13-8, 5-5 Big East) jumped out to a 9-2 advantage, which featured Hardy netting seven points and a 3-pointer that led to a UCLA timeout with 16:21 remaining. From there, the Red Storm, who began the game shooting 4-of-8 from the field, shot just 7-of-19 (.368 percent) to end the half.
UCLA (15-7, 5-5 PAC 10) used a 11-2 run, capped by freshman guard Tyler Lamb making a 3-pointer, to take a 22-21 with 3:21 remaining in the half. Lamb has two 3s and six points.
St. John's finished the half 11-of-27 from the field and 1-of-3 from behind the 3-point arc. UCLA went 10-of-20 and 2-of-8. The Red Storm have just three turnovers while the Bruins have eight.