SEATTLE, Wash. ““ UCLA’s guards were
uncharacteristically ineffective.
The team’s starting center had unwisely fouled out.
The rowdy Washington fans were becoming a factor.
It was the kind of game where the Bruins could have been blown
out, but they weren’t. And for that, they owe a large debt of
gratitude to Alfred Aboya.
Aboya had a career day in UCLA’s 70-67 loss to Washington
on Saturday, scoring 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting and pulling down
eight rebounds in 31 minutes. All of those totals were career
highs.
“Alfred Aboya was incredible today,” coach Ben
Howland said. “What a great game by him.”
Aboya, who had arthroscopic surgery on both knees before the
season started and missed the first six games of the year, showed
why Howland was, and is, so excited about the big Cameroonian
freshman.
He entered Saturday’s game after just 1:50, after
countryman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had picked up his first foul.
Aboya promptly grabbed a rebound and scored a difficult left-handed
hook shot for UCLA’s first points of the day.
That was just a taste of things to come.
Aboya scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half and gave
Washington fits on the offensive boards, where Aboya grabbed six of
his eight rebounds.
“That’s what he can do every night,” point
guard Jordan Farmar said. “We know he can.”
Aboya’s most impressive basket of the game was an
off-balance reverse lay-up late in the second half that he somehow
got to go down.
“Sometimes you’re just playing in the flow of the
game,” Aboya said with a laugh. “I caught the ball and
I was off balance, so I just laid it in. I never work on
that.”
In addition to his 15 points, Aboya was a beast on the
glass.
He said he drew motivation from the hostile crowd at the Bank of
America Arena, and Howland had further motivated the team with
reference to the Bruins’ last loss to Washington.
In the Huskies’ 69-65 victory at Pauley Pavilion,
Washington held a 32-26 rebounding edge. On Saturday, UCLA won the
rebounding battle, 34-26.
“The losses we have, they had one thing in common ““
we got out-boarded,” Aboya said. “He basically told us
that, and told us that’s how we were going to win the game.
Unfortunately, we out-rebounded them, but we lost the
game.”
While his coaches and teammates were heaping praise upon him,
Aboya seemed to take little comfort in his stellar performance.
“I’m looking at it more as a team,” Aboya
said.
“Even though I played well, we didn’t win
anything.”
Aboya also admitted that while he is approaching what he is
capable of, he is still not there. He missed too many games and
practices for that.
“I’m going towards that, but I’m not there
yet,” Aboya said. “Because I didn’t practice as
much as everyone else practiced, I’m behind with the plays. I
was a little confused out there. I missed a couple of
things.”
Because starting center Ryan Hollins fouled out with over 10
minutes left in the game, Aboya was forced to play center rather
than his more natural power forward spot.
Howland said Aboya missed several defensive assignments, but
Aboya said that the confusion will subside as he gains experience,
a fact that he actually finds somewhat comforting.
“Actually it does (make it better), in the way that you
have it in the back of your mind every time you play,” Aboya
said. “It’s coming.”