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Freshman guard Arron Afflalo had a breakout game leading the Bruins with a career-high 22 points.

Freshman Arron Afflalo said earlier in the week that he wasn’t the kind of player to force shots in trying to find his offense.

He didn’t need to on Thursday against USC because his offense found him.

Afflalo hit seven of his eight shots en route to scoring a career-high 22 points in only 23 minutes of play.

“I didn’t really know my stats,” Afflalo said. “I was caught up in the emotion of the win.”

Early on, it certainly didn’t seem that things would come so easily. On the opening possession of the game Afflalo was fouled on a 3-point attempt, and missed the first two free throws before finally connecting on the third.

As it turned out, that minor stumbling block wasn’t portentious. Afflalo scored from everywhere on the court, whether on a fastbreak, from the 3-point line or at the charity stripe. His offensive explosion matched the efficiency of the rest of his team, as not a single of his shots came outside the flow of the game. Though he had a hot hand, Afflalo made plays for others and helped maintain UCLA’s offensive onslaught.

“He was more assertive tonight,” coach Ben Howland said. “He had a great jump-stop and pass to Michael Fey for a dunk. That’s just fantastic basketball.”

He likely would have gone off for a huge night had he not been limited by foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul on a push-off with over 10 minutes left in the second half.

But the freshman’s contributions went beyond lighting up the scoreboard. He also snatched a career-high nine rebounds and played his usual outstanding defense on his best friend, Trojan freshman Gabriel Pruitt.

“Arron had a superb game tonight, especially defensively,” Howland said. “He’s really improving. He’s a hard worker and he’s really coming on right now.”

Pruitt had been the Trojans’ best player of late after averaging nearly 20 points per game in rebounding, in previous four contests, but Afflalo kept Pruitt in check all night, limiting the Trojans’ hottest player to only 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting.

“I wanted him to score no points,” Afflalo said. “That’s my intention whenever I go out there to face the other team’s best player. It’s a pride thing.”

His work on the glass also earned Afflalo compliments from his coach. Howland had frequently emphasized rebounding as one area Afflalo needed to improve upon, and Thursday marked the third consecutive game in which he grabbed a career-high in boards.

“I’m a pretty big guard, so I need to be in there using my strength to rebound,” Afflalo said.

With the momentum of his best game as a Bruin behind him, Afflalo hopes he and his teammates will be able to carry it over to Sunday’s match-up at Notre Dame.

“Whenever you have a game like this, you want to go forward,” he said. “You can’t go back.”