PHOENIX ““ UCLA routed Xavier 76-57 on Saturday night to win the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional final and advance to the Final Four for the third year in a row.
The Bruins were led by freshman center Kevin Love, who scored 19 points and 10 rebounds. After the game, Love was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
After playing erratically in their previous two Tournament wins over Texas A&M and Western Kentucky, the Bruins put together one of their most complete games of the season to overwhelm the Musketeers.
UCLA started strong, and built a nine-point lead by halftime, then broke the game open with a 15-4 run at the start of the second half. The Musketeers’ guards struggled to find driving lanes against the Bruins’ defense, and forward Josh Duncan, who scored 26 points in Xavier’s Sweet 16 win over West Virginia, found little room to work on the inside, finishing with 11 points and as many turnovers as rebounds (three). Xavier shot only 4-of-19 from 3-point range, and 21-of-58 from the field overall.
The Bruins’ guards had strong performances after struggling with foul trouble against Western Kentucky on Thursday. Junior Darren Collison had 19 points and 5 assists and sophomore Russell Westbrook had 17 points and 3 assists. Both were named to the West All-Regional team.
Junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute played by far his best game since injuring his ankle two weeks ago against USC in the Pac-10 Tournament semifinals, finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
With the win, coach Ben Howland joins Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski as the only three coaches to take a team to three consecutive Final Fours since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams.
The Bruins will play the winner of Sunday’s South Regional final between Memphis and Texas.