Bruins Get Bears Off Their Back : UCLA: Abdul-Jabbar (217 yards) helps team end five-game losing streak against Cal, 33-16.

Determined to end a losing streak against California that had stretched to five games, UCLA tried everything in the first half of Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins tried to run.

They tried to pass.

They tried to kick.

Nothing seemed to work.

But in the second half, they tried the obvious: Give the ball to tailback Karim Abdul- Jabbar, throw a block or two and get out of his way.

The result was a 217-yard rushing night for Abdul-Jabbar, including 170 in the second half and 122 in the fourth quarter, a 33-16 UCLA victory and the end of that painful losing streak in front of a largely grateful crowd of 53,614.

It was the second week in a row Abdul-Jabbar went over the 200-yard mark, having gained 261 a week ago against Stanford. And in both cases, he demonstrated an impressive ability to kick his running game into a higher gear just when the defense was running low on fuel. Last week, Abdul-Jabbar had 180 yards in the second half, 107 in the fourth quarter.

“I condition like crazy in the summer,” he said. “I should be able to do something with it. I try to get it so that when they [the defense] are going down, I’m going up.”

Abdul-Jabbar is up to 1,212 yards for the season, 15 yards short of his career-high total of last season and 193 yards shy of Gaston Green’s school record of 1,405 yards, set in 1986.

But the Bruins, 6-2 and 3-2 in the Pacific 10, focused on the number five , the number of consecutive times they had lost to the Bears.

“It was time to end it,” linebacker Abdul McCullough said. “After the first half, we were wondering what was going on. We thought maybe they had something on us, some kind of black magic. We knew we had to do something to dispel it.”

The Bruins didn’t do much in the first 30 minutes.

Oh, they had the lead, 10-7, heading into the locker room at intermission, but they didn’t feel particularly good about it.

True, the Bruins scored the first time they had the ball, quarterback Cade McNown going over from two yards out. And they scored on their last possession of the half, Greg Andrasick kicking a 34-yard field goal as time ran out.

But UCLA struggled in between against the Bears (2-6), giving up a touchdown on a 17-yard pass from quarterback Pat Barnes to Iheanyi Uwaezuoke, losing the ball on a fumble by McNown, and blowing two field goals. Bjorn Merten missed from 49 and 40 yards out.

When it came time to try the field goal at the end of the half, Coach Terry Donahue waved Merten off and went with Andrasick, who specializes in kickoffs but kicked a 47-yard field goal earlier this season.

“He told me to be ready before the game,” Andrasick said of Donahue. “Bjorn is a great placekicker, but everyone has bad days.”

Andrasick later added a 46-yarder, but Donahue, in his postgame news conference, squelched any talk of a permanent switch.

“We don’t anticipate making any changes in our kicker,” he said. “Bjorn had the best warm-ups he’s had all year, but we just felt it wasn’t his night.”

The Bruins spent halftime trying to figure out why it hadn’t been their night.

“We looked as down as we ever have,” Abdul-Jabbar said, “and we were up by three.”

The Bruins didn’t stay down long.

On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, California running back Reynard Rutherford took a handoff, headed left and ran into defensive tackle George Kase, who knocked the ball loose.

Tommy Bennett scooped up the ball and ran 22 yards untouched into the end zone.

It was the second time this season and third in his UCLA career that Bennett has scored on a fumble recovery.

“It came just when we needed it,” Bennett said.

So how does he manage to keep being in the right place at the time?

Bennett shrugged and said, “It works for me.”

Bear kicker Ryan Longwell cut the UCLA margin to six at 16-10 with a 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter.

But by then, Abdul-Jabbar was warmed up and California was in trouble.

The Bruins added two more touchdowns on an 11-yard pass from McNown to Jim McElroy and a three-yard run by Abdul-Jabbar, his 10th touchdown of the season.

California managed to get into the end zone on a one-yard run by Rutherford, but it was too late.

McNown and Abdul-Jabbar kept the offense moving, and the defense took advantage of a Bear running game that is ranked last in the Pac-10. Barnes completed 24 of 43 passes for 343 yards, but UCLA held California to 97 yards on the ground.

It was a night to savor for Donahue. In extending their winning streak to four games, the Bruins moved into contention for a bowl invitation.

The win was also the 97th conference victory for Donahue, now in his 20th season, tying him with former Washington Coach Don James for the most victories in conference history. And it was also Donahue’s 150th career victory.

As Donahue and Abdul-Jabbar passed each other in a postgame news conference, the tailback told the crowd, “He’ll be the winningest coach in Pac-10 history. You’ll see.”

Said Donahue, “Because of you.”

Who would argue otherwise?