UCLA routs Cal; USC is next
PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
Benched by foul trouble in the first half, Love's three-point shooting sparks the Bruins.
First came the defense. Kevin Love stole the ball twice in a row from California forward Ryan Anderson. Darren Collison overpowered Bears point guard Jerome Randle with ball pressure and body-up power so ferocious that California had eight turnovers in the first 12 minutes.
From that came UCLA baby hooks and slam dunks and open three-pointers taken in high-stepping rhythm.
Third-ranked UCLA led early, middle and late and walloped California, 88-66, on Thursday in a quarterfinal game at the Pacific 10 Conference tournament at Staples Center in front of an announced crowd of 17,194. The ninth-seeded Bears finished with a 16-15 record and a slim hope of playing in the NIT.
For their efforts, the top-seeded Bruins (29-3) will play fourth-seeded USC at 6 tonight in the semifinals. The teams split their regular-season games -- USC won, 72-63, at Pauley Pavilion and UCLA won at the Galen Center, 56-46. This will be the first time UCLA and USC will meet in the conference tournament.
But the Bruins never spent a second looking ahead to the Trojans. They had heard enough talk from the Bears, who were publicly dismayed at having given up an 11-point second-half lead and losing to UCLA on Saturday, 81-80, in part because of two controversial non-calls by officials in the final 16 seconds.
The national conversation all week suggested UCLA was lucky enough but maybe not good enough to have beaten Stanford and California at Pauley Pavilion without an assist from the referees.
"I think Coach [Ben] Howland made sure we heard that," Love said. "We wanted to come out today and prove we are deserving of a No. 1 NCAA seed and that we are the UCLA Bruins and that we earned it being Pac-10 champions. We wanted to come in and put ourselves in the right position the right way today."
UCLA opened up a 16-4 lead with 13:26 left in the first half. Lorenzo Mata-Real, who has graciously spent his senior season as Love's backup, scored a layup to give the Bruins that 16th point. It was an exhilarating time for Mata-Real, who had eight points, three rebounds and three blocked shots in the first 20 minutes because Love played only six minutes after getting his second foul with 11:05 to go.
Mata-Real finished the game with those eight points, three rebounds and four blocked shots, which tied a career high.
"I felt like my old self," Mata-Real said. "It was a confidence booster. It was fun. My teammates were finding me, I was playing good defense, blocking shots. It was fun."
