BERKELEY ““ He marked his spot ““ left block.
He picked his poison ““ back turned or facing up by using
his 6-foot-8, 240-pound frame.
He did whatever he wanted. Heck, just using his off-hand, he
brushed the Bruin frontcourt off his shoulders like dirt, scoring
15 points in the first half.
But sophomore forward Leon Powe disappeared in the second half,
largely because of UCLA’s suffocating double and triple teams
that they sent over to Cal’s leading scorer.
“They surrounded him and they got him from all different
angles,” Cal coach Ben Braun said.
Powe, who is one of the leading candidates for Pac-10 Player of
the Year, was averaging 19.9 points and 10.1 rebounds coming into
the game, and scored virtually at will in the paint in the first
half.
He knocked down jumpers from the outside. He threw his body
around and got to the foul line. Powe shot eight free throws and
converted seven.
But in the second half and overtime, he was shut down.
After hitting 4-of-6 from the field, Powe laid an egg,
converting just two of eight shots in the second half. He got to
the line once and split the pair. UCLA also did a tremendous job
keeping Powe off the boards. Last time at Pauley Pavilion, Powe
recorded 12 rebounds. On Thursday, he had just three.
“I told our big men, “˜You guys are big and strong,
too,'” UCLA guard Jordan Farmar said. “”˜You
guys are grown men. Take it like grown men. Stop
him.'”
Farmar and guard Darren Collison were nipping at Powe’s
ankles all night. It was the Bruins’ frontcourt of Luc
Richard Mbah a Moute, Ryan Hollins and Alfred Aboya who should be
credited for shutting Powe down. They bodied him all night.
In the first half, however, it didn’t seem like it
mattered who the Bruins had on Powe.
Freshman Mbah a Moute, who is an in-your-face defender,
couldn’t guard him. Hollins never got a crack at Powe. The
Bruin center picked up two fouls before he could even break a
sweat.
Aboya, who physically matches up the closest to Powe, caused two
of Powe’s misses in the first half, but he was plagued by
foul trouble, picking up three fouls in the first half. UCLA even
had to go to seldom-used center Michael Fey in the final minutes of
the first half.
“I needed all my teammates to help me,” Aboya said.
“Coach told us to be aggressive. We weren’t in the
first half, but in the second we made an adjustment. That’s
why he couldn’t pass well or get anything.”