LOS ANGELES -- UCLA sustained several blows in the first half against Cal State Northridge, then delivered a knockout punch in the second half.Thats the way UCLA coach Steve Alford saw it as a poor first half, muddied by turnovers and missed shots, had the Bruins trailing at halftime. The No. 16 Bruins scored 62 second-half points and struck first, early and often as they dominated Cal State Northridge 102-87 on Sunday night.Freshman Lonzo Ball made a 3-pointer and went coast-to-coast with a one-handed dunk to start a span of seven consecutive points by UCLA. The Bruins took a 47-42 lead.How he started the second (half), he was a heavyweight fighter ready to knock you out, Alford said. How we started the first half, we wanted to rope-a-dope. We dont have anybody in our locker room thats Muhammad Ali. They dont understand the rope-a-dope. Theyre too young. We wanted to come out throwing punches first and early and I didnt think we did that. Its not necessarily their fault. Its a learning process.Isaac Hamilton had 22 points, and Bryce Alford 20.The Bruins had 20 turnovers, which was troubling, but used an improved second-half shot selection and made 58.8 percent of their shots compared to just 39.4 percent in the first half.They came in with a chip on their shoulders, Hamilton said. Being ranked, a lot of teams will do that and play hard. What we have to do, and Coach says, first five minutes, you have to throw the first punch and continue from there and let the momentum swing our way.UCLA (2-0) had 11 turnovers in first half, shot 39.4 percent from the field and trailed 42-40.Kendall Smith scored 21 points for the Matadors (1-1). Aaron Parks and Tavrion Dawson each added 18 points.I told the guys, if you believe in yourself and we can play this hard every night and push the ball with this type of energy, were going to win a lot of basketball games, Cal State Northridge coach Reggie Theus said. The hard thing about nonconference games, and we have a really tough nonconference schedule, is that you can play well and still lose. This game was probably won in a matter of 5-8 minutes where it got out of hand for us.Cal State Northridge has beaten UCLA just one time in the 10-game series history, but in the games first 20 minutes it appeared the Matadors could do it again. The Matadors beat the Bruins 78-74 in Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 22, 2000, almost 16 years ago. CSUN would go on to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history that season.BIG PICTURECal State Northridge: This is just what Theus -- the former NBA player and coach -- wanted in terms of a test by scheduling difficult preseason road games. Playing difficult opponents should serve the Matadors well in terms of confidence and better prepare them to try to contend for a Big West Conference title.UCLA: The Bruins took a step backward in struggling against the Matadors for 20 minutes. Their undisciplined play resulted in turnovers and those mistakes must be cleaned up before the Pac-12 schedule starts. The Bruins executed much better offensively in the second half and made the right adjustments.SUCCESSFUL TRANSFERCSUN Guard Kendall Smith, a transfer from UNLV, played well against the Bruins and had 12 of his 21 points in the second half. Smith, who is in his second season with CSUN but first full season, had several fastbreak, uncontested dunks, including two in the first half that propelled CS Northridge to the halftime lead.QUOTABLEThats the mindset weve got to have. I dont know if ... any of our other guys had that mindset to start the game. Thats kind of the mindset you learn. Youre not going to go from one game to the next and score 119 points again and win by close to 40. It doesnt work that way. These are all learning things. Well get it. -- Alford on how the Bruins went from a 39-point win in their first game to trailing at halftime in their second.POLL IMPLICATIONSUCLA didnt do itself any favors by trailing at halftime against Cal State Northridge, but the Bruins pulled away in the second half and shouldnt lose any ground with a 15-point victory.UP NEXTCal State Northridge continues its tough preseason schedule with a second consecutive road game at a Pac-12 school on Tuesday night at Stanford.UCLA has several days off before hosting San Diego on Thursday, the third of four consecutive home games in a friendly stretch at Pauley Pavilion to start the season. Cheap Carolina Hurricanes Jerseys . - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason. Cheap New York Rangers Jerseys .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. http://www.cheapnhloutletjerseys.com/ . To the surprise of many, it isnt the Wolverines but their in-state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. Wholesale NHL Jerseys .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Cheap New Jersey Devils Jerseys . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. NEW YORK -- Long after prized prospect Lucas Giolito stumbled in his second major league start, the frustrated Washington Nationals left Citi Field still angry at the umpires.Not only the players, either.Even general manager Mike Rizzo got into a heated exchange with crew chief Jim Joyce just moments after the final out.Wilmer Flores hit a go-ahead, three-run homer and the surging New York Mets rallied past Washington 9-7 on Thursday night in the back-and-forth opener of a pivotal four-game series between the top teams in the NL East.We fought back, they fought back. Probably a heck of a game to watch, but a terrible game to lose, Nationals manager Dusty Baker said.Washingtons attempt to rally in the ninth inning was thwarted when Jayson Werth was called for an illegal takeout slide at second base, giving the Mets a double play after shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera made a diving stop of Daniel Murphys sharp grounder.To me, thats a clean slide. Its been a clean slide for over 100 years, Werth said. The only difference between the three slides tonight that went past the bag is that there was contact on that one. So if the rule is just that you cant make contact, then Major League Baseball needs to clarify that.I feel like it changes from day to day, from series to series and in this case, from inning to inning, he added.The call was upheld following a replay review, and Rizzo later got into a shouting match with Joyce, the second base umpire, that drew security in the concrete tunnel between clubhouses.I know Ive been told four or five different things from different crews about the rules and last time I was told it was going to be a common-sense type thing, Baker said. I dont know how you teach young players now to break up a double play, because theres no such thing as breaking up a double play.Jose Reyes, Travis dArnaud and Cabrera also went deep for New York in a slugfest that featured eight home runs -- most in the eight-year history of Citi Field. Curtis Granderson reached base five times and scored twice.The second-place Mets improved to 7-1 on their 11-game homestand leading into the All-Star break and shaved Washingtons division lead to three games, two in the loss column. The Nationals swept three games from the Mets at home last week to open a six-game lead.Murphy homered and drove in three runs, his latest big performance against the Mets since the defending NL champions let him leave as a free agent in the offseason.dddddddddddd Bryce Harper, Clint Robinson and Anthony Rendon hit solo shots off 43-year-old Bartolo Colon in the fourth to give the Nationals a 4-1 lead.That put Giolito in good position to earn his first career win, but the 21-year-old right-hander faded fast. He threw 90 pitches over 3 2/3 innings and gave up four runs, seven hits and four walks. Both his major league outings have come against the Mets.I didnt really have good command from the start of the game and once I started to give up a lot of hard contact, the game started to speed up, Giolito said. It got away from me.After the ninth-inning double play, All-Star closer Jeurys Familia struck out Harper for his major league-best 31st save.Flores, who had just come off the bench in a double switch to play first base, connected off Oliver Perez (2-2) in the fifth to put New York up 7-6.Hansel Robles (3-3) retired Rendon with the bases loaded to end the top of the fifth.BIG HITTERIn a stunning bright spot, Perez went 2 for 2 at the plate with a double and scored a run for the first time since 2009 with the Mets. They were his first hits since 2010 for New York. A career .158 hitter coming into the game, he hustled into second on his sixth-inning double to right field and made it safely with more of a headfirst plunge, really, than a slide or a dive. On the other hand, my real job is to get the hitters out and I failed to do that, Perez said through a translator. The previous major league reliever with a multihit game was Esmil Rogers for Colorado at San Diego on July 30, 2011.TRAINERS ROOMNationals 1B Ryan Zimmerman, who homered Wednesday against Milwaukee, sat out because of general soreness. It was simply a precaution and he is day to day, Baker said. Robinson started at first base.UP NEXTWashington RHP Stephen Strasburg (11-0, 2.71 ERA) faces RHP Noah Syndergaard (9-3, 2.41) for the first time Friday night in a marquee matchup of ace pitchers heading to the All-Star Game next week in San Diego. Strasburg was pulled with a no-hitter intact after 6 2/3 innings Sunday against Cincinnati because he had already thrown 109 pitches in his first start since an upper back strain landed him on the DL. 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