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Ray Young and the bruins got a handfull from the Jayhawks in their 87-70 loss in Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The Bruins experimented with almost everything on Saturday.

They tried running the floor, and they tried slowing the game down.

They tried a big lineup, a small lineup and a mixed lineup.

They tried pressing, and they tried a half-court defense.

They even tried showing some energy and intensity in the second half.

But in the end, nothing they tried was able to save them from another embarrassing loss, this time at the hands of No. 19 Kansas, 87-70, in front of 16,300 at Allen Fieldhouse.

"It is hard to find combinations that work, and for each of us to find our roles," said guard Jon Crispin.

Kansas led wire-to-wire and basically won the game after its dominant first-half performance. The Jayhawks opened the game with a 14-2 run, and after UCLA pulled within eight points, they went on another 14-0 run to open up an commanding 33-11 lead.

During that stretch, the Bruins looked apathetic and overmatched, and they went into the locker room down 48-25 at halftime.

"We weren't even competitive in the first half," said forward Dijon Thompson, who led the Bruins with 21 points.

"We came out too stiff," added guard Ryan Walcott. "We were just standing

around and not moving."

One need only look at the first half stats to grasp just how ugly it was for the Bruins. Consider the following:

- UCLA's highest scorer at the half was Andre Patterson, with six points.

On the other hand, Kansas had three players - Nick Collison, Wayne Simien and Kirk Hinrich - in double figures by halftime.

- The Bruins committed 14 fouls in the first half, versus just four for Kansas. Walcott and Patterson both had three fouls, and three other players had two.

- Kansas beat the Bruins 22-10 in points in the paint, 16-5 in points off turnovers and 12-2 in fast break points.

- UCLA never got to the free throw line in the first half but gave Kansas 13 free throw opportunities.

- Kansas shot 18 for 31 (58.1 percent) from the field, while UCLA only managed to go just 11 for 33 (33.3 percent). Kapono and Cummings, two of UCLA's major scoring threats, were both 1 for 6 from the field. Ray Young was 2 for 6, and Cedric Bozeman was 1 for 4.

"We didn't play our style of basketball," Young said. "We weren't as crisp and as aggressive as we normally are. We let them take the tempo."

And as for the 10 first-half turnovers, Patterson, who made his first career start, blames nervousness as the culprit.

"We came out too tentative," he said. "We didn't want to make any mistakes, but as a result of our reluctance to be aggressive, we made too many mistakes."

The Bruins did manage to turn the momentum of the game around in the second half. They started to use the full-court press to force turnovers, and were more aggressive in getting in the paint on offense. In fact, UCLA cut Kansas' lead to just 11 with 4:09 remaining in the game, and then Kapono got a steal

to give the Bruins a chance to make it a single-digit game.

But after a TV timeout, Patterson threw up a brick and Simien got alay-up to help extend Kansas' lead and end UCLA's momentum.

"We lost focus," said Kansas' Collison. "We made too many mistakes and

the offensive and defensive ends."

The Bruins, on the other hand, credited their second-half run to the stepped-up intensity they showed.

"We brought a lot of energy, which is a good sign for us," Crispin said. "We showed a lot of character in coming back."

But costly missed shots and turnovers eventually stifled a chance for UCLA to pull off a miraculous win.

"We came back, but we got careless with the ball and took some bad shots," said UCLA head coach Steve Lavin, who was coaching in his 200th career game. "Before you knew it, the game ran away from us."

Despite shooting a season-low 38.7 percent from the field, the Bruins did manage to have three players - Thompson, Kapono and Patterson - all finish in double figures.

Kansas had four, including a game-high 27 points from Hinrich.