Pac-10 supervisor: Call not ‘game-appropriate’

Bill McCabe, the Pacific 10 supervisor of officials, criticized the call made by official Kevin Brill at the end of regulation in UCLA’s 77-67 overtime victory over Stanford at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night.

With UCLA trailing, 63-61, Stanford’s Lawrence Hill was called for a foul on the driving Darren Collison with 2.5 seconds left in regulation. Hill blocked Collison’s shot and replays appeared to show that while the block was clean, Hill had made body contact with his hips. Collison made both free throws to send the game into overtime.

McCabe told ESPN, “There was body contact, but it’s not a strong call, not a game-appropriate call. It’s not an incorrect call and that doesn’t make it wrong. But I want solid calls.”

McCabe did not return phone calls from The Times, and UCLA Coach Ben Howland wouldn’t directly respond Friday to McCabe’s comments. The victory by the third-ranked Bruins clinched their third consecutive Pac-10 title.

Howland noted that coaches get fined for criticizing officials.

“First of all,” Howland said, “no game is won or lost on one call. Plenty go both ways.”

Earlier this year, McCabe had defended game officials for not calling an intentional foul on Washington’s Tim Morris on an inbounds play where Morris threw a pass directly into the face of UCLA forward Alfred Aboya.

Howland said that senior center Lorenzo Mata-Real would start today’s game against California at Pauley. It will be Mata-Real’s final home game. He is Howland’s first recruit to have stayed at UCLA through his senior season. A starter last season, Mata-Real became a backup to freshman Kevin Love this season.

“Lorenzo will start tomorrow,” Howland said. “Right now I’m bringing Kevin off the bench.”

It might very well be the final game at Pauley Pavilion for Love as well. Love, a leading candidate to be named Pac-10 player of the year, could leave college for the NBA at the end of this season.

After Thursday’s game, Love said there should be no concern over whether the Bruins would have a letdown today. “We’re not losing on senior day,” Love said. “We all want to win this for Lorenzo.”

Mata-Real, who is also on track to get his degree this spring, said he wished for a going-away win today and also that he be able to keep his emotions in check. “I don’t want to cry,” he said.

“Lorenzo is, No. 1, a great young man,” Howland said. “He’s a good teammate. It has been difficult for him to go from being a starter on a Final Four team as a junior to coming off the bench as a senior behind Kevin. He’s a classy young man. I’m proud of Lorenzo.”

UCLA has a second senior, Matt Lee, who has been a walk-on for two years. While Lee won’t start against California, Howland said he put the 6-foot guard from San Francisco on scholarship a few weeks ago.

“He shows up every day, works really hard and I’m proud of everything he’s given to help us be successful,” Howland said.

Of the 225 minutes available in Thursday’s overtime game, Howland got only 17 minutes from his bench -- Mata-Real played eight minutes and Aboya played nine. Those two players were scoreless, had one rebound, one foul, one steal and one turnover. Sophomore James Keefe, who gave up his redshirt season in January when Michael Roll suffered a season-ending foot injury, didn’t play at all after playing only two minutes against Arizona last weekend.

Howland said the 6-8 Keefe had practiced well this week but that he didn’t match up well with Stanford’s 7-foot sophomores, Brook and Robin Lopez.

“Last night, those two big monsters inside, you saw how physical it was,” Howland said. “James is 227 pounds. We really played our starting five a lot of minutes last night. It was a hard-fought game. The Lopezes are huge. Alfred is 245. Luc [Richard Mbah a Moute] is 232. Kevin’s 262. Lorenzo is about 238. We just needed bigger bodies.”

John Wooden was visited at the hospital by Hall of Famer Bill Russell on Friday, according to a statement from Wooden’s daughter, Nan Muehlhausen. Wooden, 97, has been hospitalized since last Friday after he fell at home and broke his left wrist and collarbone. Muehlhausen said she hoped her father would be released from the hospital “in the next couple of days.”

Top-seeded UCLA will play its first Pac-10 tournament game Thursday at Staples Center at 2:38 p.m. against the winner of a Wednesday game between the No. 8- and No. 9-seeded teams.

TODAY

vs. California, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7

Radio -- 570.

Site -- Pauley Pavilion.

Records -- UCLA 27-3, 15-2; California 15-13, 6-11.

Update -- The Bears sit in ninth place in the conference despite leading the conference in scoring at 77.4 points a game. Cal is third in the country in team free-throw shooting, making 77.8% of its foul shots. The Bears have won at least one game against UCLA in each of the last nine seasons, including a 76-69 overtime upset of the Bruins in the Pac-10 tournament last year. UCLA beat the Bears, 70-58, at Haas Pavilion in January.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com