by MICHAEL BECKER, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE , The Press Enterprise

The Bruins trailed the entire second half until guard Mustafa Abdul-Hamid hit a straightaway three-pointer with 16 seconds remaining. Concordia guard Terrence Worthy missed two off-balance layups close to the basket with just seconds left on the game clock, and the Bruins avoided their most embarrassing exhibition defeat since falling to Branch West Basketball Academy in 2002.

"Obviously," Coach Ben Howland said, "we have a lot of work to do to be able to compete at all in the Pac-10 this coming season."

Center Drew Gordon came off the bench to lead the Bruins with 17 points, and former Riverside North guard Malcolm Lee had 11 points but fouled out with about four minutes remaining. The Bruins trailed by as many as eight points with eight minutes remaining in the game but scored 19 of the final 29 points to hold off the Eagles.

"I don't think anything surprised me," Abdul-Hamid said. "They played hard. Coach told us from the get-go they were good. They did a great job - they're basketball players."

Those who say exhibition games do not matter did not witness what happened two days ago and 3,000 miles to the east, where Division II Le Moyne stunned Syracuse on its own floor.

It was a season-making game for tiny Le Moyne and a devastating way to open the year for Syracuse, which was ranked in the preseason Top 25.

What many at Pauley Pavilion didn't know was that Irvine-based Concordia, which has an enrollment of 2,400, is no patsy. The Eagles, a member of the Golden State Athletic Conference, entered this season hoping to reach its fourth consecutive NAIA national championships.

The Eagles returned eight of their 14 lettermen from last year's team and were so confident they could hold their own against big-time programs that they scheduled UCLA and UC Irvine back-to-back.

The Eagles showed no fear in the first half, running up a 31-28 lead at halftime. UCLA made 44 percent of its shots in the first half but turned the ball over 10 times and looked disjointed and uncomfortable with two starters sitting on the bench recovering from injuries.

Concordia guard Justin Johnson had 17 first-half points - scoring from inside, outside and cutting through the UCLA man-to-man defense - and finished with 21 points.

UCLA NOTES

Senior guard Michael Roll (right ankle sprain) and sophomore guard Jerime Anderson (pulled groin) did not play. Anderson is expected to make his debut in the Nov. 10 exhibition against Humboldt State.

Nikola Dragovic did not start as punishment for missing a mandatory team meeting last week.

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