UCLA cruises past Belmont

SAN DIEGO -- Once the UCLA Bruins started scoring, the Belmont Bruins never stood a chance.

Freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored a career-high 17 points and UCLA routed the small Nashville school, 78-44, yesterday in a first-round Oakland Regional matchup.

Ryan Hollins added 10 points for No. 2 seed UCLA (28-6), which won its seventh straight after holding 15th-seeded Belmont to 21 second-half points. Belmont (20-11) had averaged 81.8 points.

''We're disappointed, for sure," Belmont coach Rick Byrd said. ''You don't want to ever get beat bad. UCLA was way too good for us."

UCLA's backcourt duo of Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo combined for 15 points.

Justin Hare, who came in averaging 15.9 points, Boomer Herndon, and Andrew Preston had 6 points each for Belmont, which had its No. 1 fan, country singer Vince Gill, in the front row.

UCLA coach Ben Howland earned his first NCAA Tournament victory since taking over in Westwood three seasons ago. Last year, the Bruins lost in the first round to Texas Tech.

They advanced to the second round for the first time since 2002 and will play 10th-seeded Alabama tomorrow.

Alabama 90, Marquette 85 -- Jean Felix and Alabama quickly brought the focus back to basketball.

Felix was nearly perfect in scoring a season-high 31 points for the 10th-seeded Crimson Tide (18-12), which beat seventh-seeded Marquette (20-11) in a first-round Oakland Regional game that was delayed 70 minutes after bomb-sniffing dogs detected something suspicious at San Diego State's arena.

Once order was restored, Felix made five 3-pointers in the first 12 1/2 minutes to help the Crimson Tide take a 15-point lead. Marquette caught up in the second half, only to have Felix make his school-record eighth 3-pointer with less than three minutes left for an 84-77 lead.

Illinois 78, Air Force 69 -- The critics were probably half right. At times it looked like Air Force belonged in the tournament. Other times, the Falcons played like a dubious pick.

Fourth-seeded Illinois (26-6) was just too big and too talented, and finally overpowered the Falcons (24-7), winning the Washington Regional game.

Guard Jamar Smith had six 3-pointers among his 20 points for the Fighting Illini, who were playing in their first tournament game since losing last year's championship to North Carolina.

Washington 75, Utah State 61 -- Brandon Roy scored 28 points and Jamaal Williams added 15 to help fifth-seeded Washington advance to a second-round matchup against Illinois. Justin Dentmon and Bobby Jones had 11 points apiece for the Huskies (25-6).

Jaycee Carroll scored 21 points and Nate Harris had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Utah State (23-9), which had 22 turnovers.