Notre Dame suffers 7th straight setback

LOS ANGELES - Early in the morning or late at night, the UCLA Bruins are mowing down opponents at any hour.

Alfred Aboya scored 19 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in No. 15 UCLA's 89-63 rout of Notre Dame on Saturday, which sent the Fighting Irish to their seventh consecutive loss for the first time since 1992-93.

It was the fourth straight blowout victory for the Bruins (19-4), who've won those games by an average of 22.7 points since an 86-75 loss at Washington on Jan. 24. Since then, they've outscored opponents by a combined 58 points in the first half alone.

"It's obvious we've been performing at a new level and just improving as a team," said UCLA coach Ben Howland, who won his 145th game in his sixth season, tying him for fourth on the school's career victory list. "It was a good statement for our team and our conference to play them like this."

Darren Collison added 17 points, and Nikola Dragovic and freshman Jermine Anderson had 10 points each for UCLA, which has forced 74 turnovers during its four-game winning streak, including 11 on Saturday.

"It's our intensity," Collison said. "We raised the level a notch on the defensive end and guys started playing their role harder. When our intensity is at a high level, we're hard to beat."

Tory Jackson scored 17 and Kyle McAlarney 16 for the Irish (12-10), who dropped to 2-7 against ranked opponents this season. Their worst losing streak under coach Mike Brey matches the seven in a row Notre Dame lost to end the 1992-93 season.