UCLA can give it a rest

Oregon State is not accidentally in last place in the Pacific 10 Conference, so it’s hard to know what sixth-ranked UCLA should appreciate from its 84-49 win over the Beavers Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.

It was the 16th straight loss for Oregon State (6-20, 0-14). The Beavers remain on track to become the first Pac-10 team to lose 18 conference games. The Bruins (23-3, 11-2) took a one-game lead over second-place, and idle, Stanford.

When senior center Lorenzo Mata-Real galloped through the lane and hammered home a one-handed dunk on a pass from Russell Westbrook, the Bruins led 71-37 with 7 minutes 21 seconds left. Already on the bench for the night was freshman Kevin Love, who recorded all of his 11 points and nine rebounds in the first half.

Sophomore James Keefe, who is not known for his jumping ability, had a blocked shot. Mata-Real had made a running hook shot that caused teammate Nikola Dragovic to applaud as both ran back to play defense. It was also a sign that UCLA Coach Ben Howland could give his starters some rest. None of them played as many as 30 minutes, and Love played only 21. It was the first time in Pac-10 play that no Bruins starter played more than 29 minutes.

“I think that will keep fresh legs on Saturday,” said Love, who pointed to his nine rebounds and shook his head. “Almost a double-double again,” he said, wishing he had managed 10 rebounds, which would have given him 16 double-figure scoring and rebounding games. “But most of our guys will have fresh legs on Saturday.”

The Bruins next play Oregon. It was at Oregon last month when Love and his father, Stan, a former Oregon player, were heckled so obscenely that the Ducks’ athletic department had to apologize to UCLA and Stan Love.

“At halftime,” was Love’s answer as to when he began thinking about Saturday’s Oregon game.

It was easy for all the Bruins to look ahead.

Already short of talent, Oregon State was hindered even more after interim Coach Kevin Mouton suspended senior Marcel Jones, the team’s second-leading scorer and rebounder, and freshman Sean Carter because of their actions in starting a taunting incident against Washington last week in Corvallis, Ore.

The Bruins led by as many as 37 points, but junior Josh Shipp, who has been stuck in a long-distance shooting slump, missed all four of his three-point attempts, making him him 0 for 19 from beyond the arc in the last five games. Lakers guard Jordan Farmar, a good friend and former UCLA teammate of Shipp, walked up the Pauley stairs after the game and said, “Don’t say Josh is in a slump. He’ll be scoring.”

Guards Westbrook (17) and Darren Collison (14) combined for 31 points and Mata-Real finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots for the Bruins.

Usually it is up to Howland to find something to criticize. Yet Howland’s spread sheet was full of good numbers -- 55.2% shooting from the field, a 43-24 rebounding advantage, holding the opponent to 34.5% shooting, a season-high 10 blocked shots.

“I’m glad we came out and played hard,” Howland said. “It was a good performance by us in almost all respects. I thought Darren and Russell did an exceptional job of sharing the ball and running the team.”

Howland pointed to the 16 assists compared to only three turnovers by Collison and Westbrook as a sign the offense was operating well.

It was up to Collison to act as the team grumbler.

“We’ve got to work on staying mentally focused,” Collison said. “A couple of times when we were ahead we lost focus and gave up a couple of easy baskets. If we continue to allow that it will hurt us. It would hurt us against Oregon. We’ve got to stop that.”

Mouton said one of the things he took from this game was an appreciation of UCLA.

“I would not be surprised if they make it back to the Final Four,” Mouton said. “Their help defense is as good as their one-on-one defense. And they have been there before.”

Twice in a row.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

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UP NEXT FOR UCLA

Saturday vs. Oregon, 12:30 p.m., Pauley Pavilion, Channel 7 -- UCLA athletic department officials have e-mailed students asking them to be polite when Oregon comes to Pauley. In Eugene, Bruins freshman center Kevin Love and his father, Stan, a former Ducks star, were obscenely taunted through much of UCLA’s 80-75 win. Love had 26 points and 18 rebounds in response.