For much of the first half at Pauley Pavilion on Monday night, the UCLA men’s basketball team’s biggest opponent seemed to be itself.
But once the Bruins got out of their own way, their real opponents didn’t stand a chance.
UCLA overcame early foul trouble, poor 3-point shooting and another game without starting point guard Darren Collison to handily defeat Youngstown State, 83-52, in the opening round of the Los Angeles regional of the College Basketball Experience Classic.
Forwards Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute both picked up two fouls early on in the game, which forced them to spend much of the first half on the bench.
Consequently, Lorenzo Mata-Real and Kevin Love, both normally listed as centers, played more minutes than usual at the same time, with Love shifting over to power forward.
The unusual combination worked well for the Bruins, with Love scoring a game-high 21 points to go with nine rebounds, while Mata-Real registered a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
After the game, coach Ben Howland was pleased with the pair’s offensive performance, but was more concerned with their defense. “Defensively we struggled a little bit at times matching up,” Howland said. “It’s a hard matchup for Kevin at the four. … But that’s going to happen this year when they’re playing together, so we have to get better at that.”
Russell Westbrook also continued to play well in his second game since taking over as the starting point guard for the injured Collison. Westbrook finished with nine points, nine assists and only three turnovers.
“Just slowing down ““ that’s the whole key,” Westbrook said. “Just slowing down when I get in the paint. It’s not a problem of me going against somebody; it’s just of me just getting in there and finding the open guy. I think I did a better job of that tonight.”
Controlling the speed of play did seem to be something of an issue for the Bruins toward the end of the first half. UCLA had a number of errant passes picked off, which helped the Penguins to outscore the Bruins 16 to 13 on fast break points.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Howland said. “We were up almost 40 when I took the starters out, so I’m not worried about that at all.”
The Bruins also struggled at times to shoot from the outside, making only five of 19 shots from 3-point range. But even with those shots not falling, the Bruin inside game was there to pick up the slack, outrebounding the Penguins 49 to 30.
“We’re trying to get every single rebound,” Love said. “Coach Howland wants us to outrebound every team by at least 10 every game, and I think we did a great job on the boards tonight. (Mata-Real) had 14 rebounds and really stepped up for us off of the bench.”
PRESSING ON: The Bruins will take on Division II Cal State San Bernardino tonight in their second-round game. The Coyotes, who advanced by defeating Weber State 71-59 earlier in the day, are unusual in that they run a full-court press defense all game.
“They’ve got good players; they’re very well-coached,” Howland said. “This will be actually good for us because it’s a team that presses, and (that) really plays different. You’ve got to be able to react to anything.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. If UCLA wins, it will advance to the CBE Classic Championship Rounds next week in Kansas City, Mo.
The Bruins’ game will be preceded by a game between Youngstown State and Weber State at 4:45 p.m.