Love keeps focus in likely final Pauley game

Kevin Love and Lorenzo Mata-Real met for a chest bump at center court after UCLA’s dramatic 81-80 victory over Cal at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. They were excited about the victory, to be sure, but perhaps there was something more to it.

One, Love, is a freshman, while the other, Mata-Real, is a senior. But both of these centers have likely played their last games at Pauley Pavilion.

While Mata-Real was treated with ovation after ovation, Love’s cheers seemed to have gotten lost somewhere along the course of the Bruins’ furious last-second comeback.

No chants implored him for “one more year.” No cheers told him “thank you, Kevin.”

And, reportedly, there is little chance of a sophomore year for Love, who many believe will declare for the NBA Draft after this season. But the freshman stopped short of saying anything like that after the game.

“It’s kind of unfair to think about it,” Love said. “(Especially) heading into crunch time (when) it’s win or go home.

“I tried to soak it in, in case it was (my last game at Pauley).”

Love, junior point guard Darren Collison, junior small forward Josh Shipp, junior power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and sophomore guard Russell Westbrook could all have played their last games at Pauley Pavilion, though Love and Collison are considered the surest bets to leave early.

But on Saturday, it was Mata-Real in the spotlight.

TIRED BRUINS: UCLA struggled once again in the first half, down seven at the break and appearing lethargic on both defense and offense.

In the postgame press conference, coach Ben Howland attributed much of the slow start to the effect Thursday’s dramatic overtime victory had on his players.

“That was a very emotional game on Thursday, no doubt about it,” Howland said. “You always have a little worry. I could tell our guys were obviously tired. Probably because like me, I was tired, I couldn’t sleep. That’s no excuse.

“We’re going to take Sunday and Monday off. This has been a grind.”

LUC BACK: Mbah a Moute, who has seen his point averages and rebound averages go noticeably down this year after attempting to make the switch to small forward at the beginning of the season, appears to have finally gotten back to his bread and butter: rebounding and put-backs.

Mbah a Moute logged his second consecutive double-double on Saturday, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

BENCH PRODUCTION?: There was a curious note in the box score following the game. UCLA, which has struggled to find scoring off of the bench, had an astounding 26 bench points on Saturday.

Of course, Love’s 22 points counted as coming from the bench, despite the usual starter playing 29 minutes. Mata-Real started at center.

“Coach Howland said after last game Lorenzo was going to start,” Love said. “Even if he wouldn’t have done that, I would have had a little meeting with coach Howland and told him to start him, because it is Senior (Day).”

DRIBBLERS: A reporter in press row had to be asked to sit down after jumping up following Shipp’s game-winning circus shot. … UCLA’s 1968 national championship team was honored at halftime. It was the 100th of UCLA’s national championship teams to be so honored at home basketball games this season. … Three UCLA players went down with ankle issues during the game, and all three of them (Westbrook, Love, Mbah a Moute) appeared fine after the game, though Mbah a Moute had ice wrapped around both of his ankles.

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