Sore hip keeps Mata sitting in second half

UCLA center Lorenzo Mata awoke Saturday and didn’t feel good. His left hip, fine the night before, ached in the morning, Mata said.

Through warmups and during the first half of the Bruins’ 70-65 loss to West Virginia, the hip kept feeling worse. At halftime Mata told UCLA Coach Ben Howland about the pain. Alfred Aboya started the second half in Mata’s place, and even when Mata told Howland he felt he could play, the coach kept him on the bench.

“I’d rather err on the side of caution,” Howland said.

Mata had limped off the court during Wednesday’s win over USC. “I just bumped knees with somebody,” he said. “This is different.”

Indeed, on Friday, Howland said Mata had “a tremendous” practice session.

Howland said Mata approached him at halftime. “He told me he had developed a hip flexor,” Howland said. “He said he could play in the middle of the second half.”

Howland wasn’t interested.

Aboya took most of Mata’s minutes and finished with a season-high 11 points as well as nine rebounds.

The WVU Coliseum public address announcer kept calling Aboya “Alfredo,” but Aboya said he didn’t notice.

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When UCLA lost at Oregon and Stanford earlier this season, the student body rushed the court. At WVU Coliseum on Saturday it wasn’t only the students who stormed onto the court. Even West Virginia Coach John Beilein came back from a hallway to savor the bedlam.

“I’m 54,” Beilein said. “How many times am I going to see this again? I wanted to see the celebration for myself. I wasn’t going to go out there and run around, but I wanted to see our fans react to this one.”

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West Virginia sophomore guard Ted Talkington, a non-scholarship player, had only four career points coming into this game. He has nine now. Talkington contributed five points, including a key corner three-pointer.... West Virginia had 10 steals to UCLA’s five and the Bruins committed 15 turnovers, about three above their average.... The Bruins also scored only eight points off turnovers; West Virginia had 15. “It’s hard when you’re missing your starting point guard,” Beilein said, referring to UCLA sophomore Darren Collison. “That can’t be an excuse,” the Bruins’ Arron Afflalo said. “As a team we can’t rely on just one player.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com