Love sparks early run that lifts UCLA, 70-58

BERKELEY -- Former UCLA star Baron Davis stood with his arms crossed and gave a head nod in the direction of the visitor’s locker room at Haas Pavilion. Inside he could hear the hooting and hollering from the celebrating Bruins, who had just beaten California, 70-58, Saturday to begin the Pacific 10 Conference season with two hard-nosed road victories.

How good, Davis was asked, was UCLA?

“Very good,” Davis said.

And how would Davis evaluate Bruins freshman center Kevin Love?

“Very good,” Davis said. “Veeeeery good.”

Love had 19 points and 14 rebounds. He had the first basket of the game for the fifth-ranked Bruins (14-1, 2-0) that set off a 13-2 run and took some starch out of the sellout crowd of 11,877. Love starred with a confident hook shot and a mean defensive streak that was needed against Cal’s 6-foot-11 center DeVon Hardin and 6-10 forward Ryan Anderson.

“We got two wins and that’s what counts,” Love said. “We didn’t necessarily shoot the ball that great, but we shut them down with defense.”

The Bears had been averaging 82.4 points, a pace that would make them the second-highest scoring Cal team in history. And Anderson had been leading the Pac-10 in scoring, averaging nearly 22 points.

After an afternoon spent fighting UCLA’s ball pressure, finding it difficult to get a pass into the post over the long arms of Darren Collison or Russell Westbrook or Josh Shipp, seeing open lanes suddenly blocked by Alfred Aboya or Luc Richard Mbah a Moute or Lorenzo Mata-Real or Love, Cal posted its lowest point total of the season.

Anderson finished with 12 points on four-of-13 shooting and Hardin only re-energized the Bruins when he did a curious dance after a dunk. It was a celebration of a moment when his team drew within two points, 38-36, but a minute later the score was 42-36 after Westbrook made a jump shot in the lane and finished a fast break started by a Shipp rebound with his own thunderous dunk.

Westbrook didn’t dance. But he was eager to go home and check out the play, in which he launched himself from the free-throw line, elevated over Cal forward Jamal Boykin and hurled the ball through the basket so hard even the Bears fans gasped.

“Nobody just stops me,” Westbrook said. “I just keep on going and when I scored, I kept going, getting back on defense. I’ve got to see this one though. I’ve got to see how it looks. From what my teammates say, it looks nice.”

What looked nice to Bears Coach Ben Braun was the relentless UCLA man-to-man defense.

“They take away a lot of what you’d like to do,” he said. “They shoot three for 17 from three yet they overcame that on the other end of the floor. They make you go to your second and third options and if you’re not willing to do that, you’ll be in trouble.”

After UCLA had the fast start, the Bears never got closer than 38-36. Besides Love’s effort, point guard Collison played what UCLA Coach Ben Howland called his best game of the season with 14 points and five assists. Shipp had 13 points and Westbrook added 11 and seven rebounds. Shipp’s final basket, a runner in the lane, gave him 1,000 points at UCLA.

The Bears (10-3, 1-1) had been outrebounding opponents by six a game this year, but UCLA had 43 to California’s 30.

Howland said he had a feeling Love was going to have a big game. At Friday’s shoot-around, Howland challenged the team to have someone make a half-court shot. Freshmen went first, so Love grabbed the ball and, as Howland said, “swished it.”

Love said Howland told him, “OK, back up.” So Love went to the far end of the court and let loose a full-court, two-handed shot. He swished that too.

Sophomore forward James Keefe, who relinquished his chance to redshirt this season after Michael Roll injured his foot, played eight minutes in his first two games back.

He scored his first basket of the season Saturday and afterward said the decision to come back was not easy.

“I had to think about it and take a deep look inside,” said Keefe, who had shoulder surgery in August. “Now it’s time to play.”

Mbah a Moute and Westbrook collided on a rebound and Mbah a Moute came up limping. The junior said he hurt his right knee but that it felt better after being iced.

diane.pucin@latimes.com