Lorenzo Mata made his presence felt at the Galen Center on
Saturday when No. 3 UCLA (15-1, 4-1 Pac-10) traveled to face
USC.
Mata did whatever it took to squeak the Bruins past the Trojans
in what has become a legitimate rivalry.
He dove to keep the ball in UCLA’s possession late in the
game, gathered several key offensive rebounds, and contained Trojan
big man Taj Gibson when it mattered most.
“I can’t really explain the responsibility he had,
and he was able to do what he was asked,” sophomore teammate
Darren Collison said. “I felt like that when the team really
needed him, he stepped up.”
Though Mata started the game similarly to the way he started the
one the Bruins lost in Oregon just a week earlier, the junior
center was able to collect himself and buckle down on Gibson with
his stingy interior defense.
Within the first five minutes, Mata had committed two fouls and
two turnovers before being replaced by sophomore Alfred Aboya. But
after spending much of the first half on the bench, Mata was ready
to come back into the game and help contribute.
“I’m a physical player and I work hard, so I’m
going to do all the dirty work,” Mata said. “I’m
going to do whatever it takes for the team to win.”
Once the second half started, Mata played physically without
picking up a foul, stopping Gibson in his tracks and combining with
Aboya to give up just four second-half points to the Trojan
freshman.
While Gibson played the entire game, Mata and Aboya split
playing time almost evenly, with 19 and 20 minutes, respectively.
Even then, Mata was able to tally more points and just as many
rebounds on USC’s big man
The Bruin center’s second-half play didn’t go
unnoticed by his teammates or by coach Ben Howland, who, with the
game on the line, made the decision to keep Mata in the game, even
though he knew the Trojans were likely to intentionally foul
him.
“I didn’t want to take Lorenzo out because he had
made a bunch of big plays to give us the lead and had really played
well,” Howland explained.
Down the stretch, Mata made two crucial plays on the offensive
end, sprawling across the court to save a ball from going out of
bounds and giving the Bruins a second scoring chance on a big
offensive rebound, one of his three total of the night.
But with less than a minute left to play, USC did just as
Howland had expected and Mata was sent to the free-throw line,
where he had already made two of his first three. But this time he
came up just short on both free throws, enabling the rival Trojans
to take the lead on a Nick Young free throw at the other end of the
court.
“Lorenzo played great with the offensive rebounds he was
getting, even though it might get overshadowed by his two missed
free throws,” Collison said.
Free throws have been Mata’s main weakness this season, as
he is shooting a mere 32.6 percent from the charity stripe.
Though Mata continues to work on improving his numbers from the
line, he is also focused on making up for his poor free throw
shooting by contributing to the Bruins in other ways.
“If coach (Howland) needs me in at the end of a close
game, then I’m going to do what he needs me to do, but I also
understand that teams might try to foul me so, I need to work on my
free throws even more,” Mata said.