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  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan Ganzuric attempts to gain control of the ball in the game starting tipoff.

By Chris Umpierre

Daily Bruin Staff

GREENSBORO, N.C. - In UCLA's last game of the regular season, the Washington Huskies sent a message to the Bruins that they needed to work on their defense.

After the No. 4-seeded Bruins' (22-8) 61-48 victory over No. 13-seeded Hofstra (26-5) in the first round of NCAA tournament, UCLA shooting guard Billy Knight had one thought in terms of that message from Washington.

Thank you.

Last Saturday's embarrassing 96-94 defeat to 20-loss Washington, a squad that averaged 67 points a game, forced UCLA to work on its defense. After a hard week of practice, the Bruins responded with their most inspired defensive effort of the season Thursday in front of 14,235 spectators in

Greensboro Coliseum.

UCLA held Hofstra to just one field goal in the last nine minutes of the game, and in doing so ended the Pride's 18-game winning streak. The Bruins will now play No. 12-seeded Utah State, an upset winner over Ohio State, in the second round on Saturday.

"That Washington game really helped us out a lot because all we did was concentrate on defense in practice," said Knight, who scored a game-high 17 points.

And it showed.

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan Gadzuric places the ball safely in the net as Hofstras Greg Springfield can only stand amazed in the first half of play Thursday. After allowing the Pride to dictate the pace of the game for the first 30 minutes - Hofstra led 43-37 with 13 minutes left in the game - UCLA clamped down defensively.

The Bruin defense, which has been widely criticized this season, allowed five points over the last 13 minutes.

Incredibly, Hofstra scored just 15 points in the second half. Their 48 total points were the fewest the Bruins have given up all year. While the Pride was throwing up brick after brick and constantly committing turnovers, UCLA went on a 20-5 run to close the game and seal the victory.

Knight could tell Hofstra was cracking under his team's defensive pressure.

"When they start traveling and they start passing it back and forth in the backcourt, that's how we can tell that we have them," said Knight, whose team coaxed the Pride into 21 turnovers. "When we see that, it's like shark seeing blood and we attack them even more."

The Bruins attacked defensively with energy and fire not seen since they stunned Arizona at home on Feb. 15. At least four players on different occasions left their feet to dive for loose balls on the floor. Several others took offensive charges.

In one telling play, UCLA point guard Earl Watson stole a ball as he was going out of bounds. He jumped up, called timeout and crash-landed in the lap of a reporter in press row.

Even the Bruins' biggest player, 6-foot-11 center Dan Gadzuric, joined the act. He was all over the court in the second half, several times sprinting from one sideline to another in hopes of grabbing an errant pass.

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Billy Knight flies his way to two of his 17 points in the second half of play Thursday afternoon.

"Gadzuric's the fastest guy on our team," Watson said. "When we do sprints in practice he beats us all. It's unbelievable. I told him he should be a wide receiver. Honestly, no one could stop him."

An athletic center who is able to jump into passing lanes is scary as it is. Hofstra has no intentions of thinking about a 6-11 wide receiver.

"The most difficult part for us was that they have such great athletes - one through five - and they all can sprint," Pride point guard Jason Hernandez said. "They do a great job of moving around the court and they play so hard on defense."

The Pride, who won this year's America East Conference Championship, gave the Bruins quite a scare in the first half. They not only led for most of the first half but were also dictating the slow-paced game they had hoped for.

Hofstra, a 33 percent three-point shooting team, jumped out to an early lead by shooting a scintillating 50 percent from downtown (7 of 14) in the first half. Hernandez and guard Rick Apodaca each nailed three bombs.

To the credit of UCLA, a program that has had its share of first round upsets (see Princeton in 1996 and Detroit Mercy in 1999), the Bruins kept their composure when it seemed their opponent could do no wrong in the first half.

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Hofstras Norman Richardson screens Ray Young, although the attempt does not help his Hofstra teammate. "I tried to stay calm in the first half and not get frustrated because the team feeds off of me," Watson said. "Against Washington I got frustrated and we lost the game. I knew my (poor) leadership was the reason why we lost that game."

When the final buzzer sounded, Watson and the rest of his teammates let out a collective sigh of relief, knowing they had survived a quality Hofstra team.

"It's a burden lifted off every team that wins in the first round," Watson said. "It's you against the world. Everyone was saying we were going to lose."