Aboya is ready to go if Mbah a Moute can’t

UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute says his sprained right knee feels better and he wants to try to play Thursday at California, but he’ll have to wait for word from medical personnel after planning to test it in practice for the first time today.

Either way is fine for Alfred Aboya, who started in Mbah a Moute’s place Saturday against Arizona and had 11 rebounds and two crucial free throws in the final minute.

“Ryan Hollins, he told me this, and I keep it in my mind every day and made it my motto: ‘Stay ready, so you don’t need to get ready,’ ” Aboya said.

Aboya looked nervous early against Arizona, missing open shots from point-blank range, but he finished strong, making two free throws with 17 seconds left despite a career mark not much better than 50%.

“The beginning of the game, he had an adrenaline rush. It’s what happens sometimes, a game like that, you get so excited,” Coach Ben Howland said. “He got really tired after about two minutes.

“Then he finally settled down. He had 11 rebounds, played very good defense, drew a big charge. He had a big follow where he got an offensive rebound and put it back. And obviously, he made big free throws for us, with us up three.”

Mbah a Moute, who injured his knee Thursday against Arizona State, has been receiving treatment but was not supposed to practice until today.

“It feels a lot better,” he said. “I’ll keep doing rehab about two hours a day, so we’ll see. It’s not much pain right now. Just pain on the back of my knee, just an ache, mostly when I stretch my knee.”

The Bruins lose something on offense when Aboya, who averages 3.6 points, fills in for Mbah a Moute. But the 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward is a solid inside defender.

Howland praised Aboya’s approach.

“Day in and day out, there is nobody that plays harder in our program than Alfred,” he said.

“Alfred’s a really mentally tough, very mature kid. I really do have a lot of confidence in him.”

Howland said Mbah a Moute would travel with the team even if his status for the Cal game is uncertain. UCLA has an extra day off on the trip before playing Stanford on Sunday.

“I hope he is available and will play Thursday. I really don’t have a good feel for it right now,” Howland said.

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Point guard Darren Collison, leading the Pacific 10 Conference in three-point percentage at 50.9%, credited adjustments he made over the summer for his improvement after making 32.8% last season.

Collison has made 27 of 53 three-point shots after changing his shooting stroke.

“I just wanted to make it shorter,” he said. “Make it a quicker jump shot so it would be harder to contest when guys close out.”

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Cal is leading the nation in free-throw percentage at 78.4%, suggesting the Bruins aren’t likely to get any late breaks at the line in a close game.

“We’ll have to make our foul shots,” Howland said.

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com