LOS ANGELES — Steve Alford barely mentioned last year’s 39-point drubbing by Kentucky and showed no video of it in preparing UCLA for the rematch.

The memory was already seared in the minds of the players who endured the humiliation.

The coach’s main message was a boxing analogy: “If you want to play it, we got to come to fight.”

The Bruins came out punching and landed a knockout blow, upsetting the Wildcats 87-77 on Thursday night for their first victory over a No. 1 team since 2003.

“This win is very, very special just because of what happened last year,” Alford said. “Not only were they the number one team in the country, we had seven points in the (first) half last year.”

Thomas Welsh led five Bruins in double figures with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton added 15 points each, Tony Parker had 11 and Aaron Holiday 10 for the Bruins (5-3), who led all but 30 seconds of the game and shot 53 percent from the field.

They last beat a No. 1 team on March 13, 2003, defeating Arizona 96-89 in overtime.

“We knew nobody in the world thought we were going to win this game,” the younger Alford said.