UCLA fans outnumbered at arena

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PHILADELPHIA -- The few, the proud.

The UCLA section at the Wachovia Center amounts to a lone section of seats, an outnumbered but apparently undaunted group of fans gathered for today’s second-round NCAA game between the sixth-seeded Bruins and third-seeded Villanova.

Many of the Bruin fans came from regional booster clubs in the East.

Pretty much the rest of the arena is decked out in a darker shade of Villanova blue.

‘It’s very, very loud,’ said Kimberly Overhauser, 25, of New York, talking about the cheers for the other team.

Wayne Pichotta, 26, also of New York, shrugged and said of the Bruins: ‘They’ve won road games before.’

Or, as 49-year-old Todd Krouner, of New York, put it: ‘We don’t overwhelm.’

-- David Wharton