Coach Ben Howland made a concerted effort to work on getting the ball inside in practice last week.
The results came to fruition in both of last week’s games for UCLA. After scoring 54 points in the paint against California, the Bruins doubled up Stanford’s scoring output in the paint 32-16. Against Cal, many of the inside points came from layups in transition or sophomore forward Josh Shipp’s drives to the basket as well as from the post players in half-court. But against Stanford, most of the points in the paint came from junior center Lorenzo Mata and sophomore forwards Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute from post-ups, put-backs or drives.
“The emphasis was put on the inside game this week in practice,” Aboya said. “We accomplished our goal for the week.”
Mata followed up a career-high 14-point performance against Cal with eight more points against Stanford, establishing himself as a force early in the game. Aboya also had seven points and five rebounds off the bench while Mbah a Moute had 11 points and seven rebounds in just 23 minutes of action.
“Lorenzo, Alfred, and Luc all stepped up today and got us those easy points in the paint,” Shipp said. “When you have all those guys playing well, it definitely adds to everything and makes the game a lot easier.”
Equally impressive was their defense against a Stanford team that loves to pound the ball inside. Even though freshman forward/center Brook Lopez scored 23 points, the Bruins did not allow very many easy buckets inside. Almost every other point scored by the Cardinal came from the perimeter and even Lopez was forced out of the paint on a few of the shots he made.
The Bruins double-teamed Lopez and his brother Robin Lopez, who had just two points on 1-of-6 shooting, throughout the game and made it difficult for Stanford to execute their offensive plan.
“That’s the thing we’re always going to do against big men who can score,” Mata said. “We’re undersized … we have to double-team and we all do a great job of doing it. It’s a team effort.”
RESURGENT LUC: Ever since the loss at Stanford, Mbah a Moute has played consistently solid basketball for the Bruins. After finishing the game at Stanford with just four points and two rebounds, Mbah a Moute had his eighth consecutive game with at least seven rebounds against the Cardinal on Saturday.
Playing in foul trouble (and fouling out with 5:00 still left in the game) Luc was able to post 11 points, nine of which came in a five-minute stretch to open the second half, in which he was particularly assertive taking the ball right at Brooke Lopez and scoring.
“I just tried to be more aggressive,” Mbah a Moute said. “I tried to take advantage of my one-on-one opportunities.”
Mbah a Moute has scored double-digit points in four of his last eight games and has at least eight points in six of those games. In his 13 games prior to those eight games, Mbah a Moute reached double-digits just twice.
His strong performance in the team’s win had him flashing a big smile and joking around with the media at the end of the Stanford game.
When asked if he heard the “one more year,” chants from the student section directed at junior Arron Afflalo, he feigned a confused look.
“I thought that was to me,” he said.