INDIANAPOLIS “”mdash; One group of players came out swinging. And
they didn’t relent.
The other group came out wide-eyed and tense. And for them, it
only got worse.
In a game that was supposed to resemble a heavyweight fight,
second-seeded UCLA was the only team actually throwing punches, as
the Bruins (32-6) built an early lead and never looked back,
cruising to a 59-45 victory over fourth-seeded LSU (27-9) in the
NCAA semifinals.
And because of the Bruins’ effort, they live to fight one
more day. UCLA will face third-seeded Florida, a 73-58 winner over
George Mason, in Monday’s NCAA championship game with a
chance to bring home the program’s 12th national title.
“LSU was a little bit frustrated and confused,”
freshman point guard Darren Collison said. “And whenever you
see players like that, you just want to keep going at them and
going at them.”
If that was the game plan, UCLA executed it to perfection.
LSU may have scored the first two points of the game, but that
was just about all the glory the Tigers would have on Saturday
night.
They couldn’t successfully feed the ball to Glen
“Big Baby” Davis. They couldn’t buy a bucket from
outside. They committed silly turnovers that translated to easy
UCLA baskets.
And the root of all those problems, of course, was the UCLA
defense.
“That’s the best defense we’ve played all
year,” coach Ben Howland said. “We needed that to be
able to beat a team as talented and as good as LSU.”
The Tigers shot 32 percent from the field and didn’t make
a single 3-pointer. They had a season-low four assists. Their 45
points was their lowest output of the season. And to make matters
worse, they were an atrocious 13-for-28 from the foul line.
Davis, the Tigers’ leading scorer and an absolute monster
for the first four games of the NCAA Tournament, scored just 14
points on 5-for-17 shooting.
UCLA’s primary goal was to make it difficult for him to
even catch the ball, and when he did, he was met with a double team
each and every time.
He appeared frustrated, winded and then frustrated again.
With 13:17 left in the game, the 310-pound Davis went to hedge
on a screen, and he ended up tackling the 155-pound Collison to the
floor for his third foul.
“I was thinking, “˜That’s
frustration,'” Collison said. “That’s
exactly what you want. He came out real aggressively, he was a
little bit mad, but that’s what’s going to happen when
you do it to a team like that.
“Just keep pushing it down their throats, and
they’re going to get real frustrated.”
Davis picked up his fifth foul with 2:09 left and spent the last
painful minutes of the game on the bench.
“No, I never seen this coming,” Davis said.
“You know, I never seen this type of game coming, especially
the kind of team we are, the kind of character we have. But, you
know, you never say never. They came out and they just punched us.
We didn’t recover from it.”
During the Bruins’ 12-game winning streak and five-game
run to the championship, the defense has been the team’s
standby.
With the team executing on the offensive end and winning the
rebounding battle (42-33) as well, the result was a rout.
“If we play like we did tonight, everything is going to go
our way,” said sophomore center Lorenzo Mata, who had eight
rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
“We did everything we were supposed to do.”
Freshman phenom Luc Richard Mbah a Moute led all scorers with 17
points on 5-for-9 shooting.
Jordan Farmar was the only other Bruin in double figures,
finishing with 12. With 15:52 left to play in the game, Farmar
stepped up and hit an incredibly deep 3-pointer to give UCLA a
48-27 lead. At that point, the Bruins had essentially booked their
13th title-game appearance.
“Everyone was kind of quiet,” Farmar said. “I
was excited. I play with a lot of emotion. That’s what got us
through.
“We play with a lot of emotion, really put our heart and
soul out there.”
In three of five tournament games, UCLA has held its opponent to
45 points or less. On Monday, they’ll have one more
chance.
“This is definitely one of the best games we’ve
played all year, but hopefully this isn’t the best,”
senior center Cedric Bozeman said.
“It feels good, being my last year. I’m riding this
all the way out, like a magic carpet. To be here Monday night and
play for the national championship in front of millions ““
it’s going to be great.”