UCLA Is Upset by Pitt : College basketball: The No. 11 Bruins commit 13 turnovers during first half of a 91-79 loss as injured Butler watches.

Frustration was etched on the face of UCLA forward Mitchell Butler as he sat at the end of the bench during the No. 11 Bruins’ 91-79 loss to Pittsburgh before 13,071 at the Civic Arena on Monday night.

Butler, who had appeared in 106 consecutive games, sat out the first game of his college career because of a sprained left wrist as the Panthers (7-1) ended the Bruins’ five-game winning streak.

“It’s something that I don’t feel I could ever do again,” Butler said.

“If I’m able to walk and I have broken fingers on each hand, I’ll go in and try to play. It was really tough for me emotionally just to sit there and watch the game.

“Midway through the first half, I wanted to get in there. I saw the score start to creep away from us. I saw some things that weren’t being done defensively and I wanted to get in at that point. I turned to (trainer) Tony Spino and said, ‘You may have to tape me up,’ and he said, ‘No, no.’ ”

The Bruins (7-2), who gave up their most points of the season, could have used Butler, their team captain.

“He’s our best defender and he’s our leader,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “As I’ve said before, we’re not the same team with one of our five starters out.”

UCLA guard Tyus Edney, who scored a personal-best 20 points, agreed.

“We missed (Butler) a lot,” Edney said. “He’s our team leader and he’s a great defensive player who rebounds for us. We really missed him this game.”

UCLA, which committed 19 turnovers, 13 during the first half, appeared out of sync on offense as Rodney Zimmerman started in place of Butler.

“I think we hurried the offense just a little bit,” Edney said. We were making the kind of passes that we don’t usually make.”

Trailing by 63-50 with 11 minutes remaining in the game, the Bruins outscored the Panthers, 16-8, to pull to five points with 4:16 left. However, they couldn’t get any closer.

“Usually when we’re right there, Mitch is the person who carries us over the hump, and it was pretty hard to play without him,” said forward Ed O’Bannon, who had 11 points.

“I can’t say that we would have won the game, but I feel that if he was in the game, if we would have lost, it wouldn’t have been by 12. Mitch would have made a strong impact even if he didn’t shoot the ball.”

Pittsburgh, which shot 51.6% during the second half, had four players in double figures.

Forward Chris McNeal had a personal-best 26 points, including 16 during the second half, and 12 rebounds. Guard Jerry McCullough had 19 points, forward Antoine Jones added 16 points and guard Marlon Rhymes had 12 points in a reserve role.

McNeal, who was averaging 7.1 points and 6.7 rebounds, had the worst shooting performance of his college career during Pittsburgh’s 87-63 victory over Robert Morris on Wednesday, missing all seven shots he attempted. However, he made 11 of 19 shots against UCLA, including seven of 10 during the second half.

“Coach (Paul) Evans told me to keep shooting the ball,” McNeal said. “Tonight was the night I had to come back and play hard. I felt pretty confident shooting tonight.”

Evans said didn’t lose confidence in McNeal.

“Chris gave us his best effort of the season,” Evans said. “We went inside to him on the opening play and he put it in. He hasn’t been in our doghouse, he’s always had a good attitude and performed well in practice.

“He carried that over tonight and maybe relaxed more. Tonight, we started both halves going to him and he made both shots. We went to him and he came through.”

McCullough carried the Panthers during the first half, scoring 13 points as the Panthers took a 41-34 halftime lead.

“I feel we should be ranked now,” McCullough said after the Panthers’ fifth consecutive victory.

Bruin Notes

UCLA forward Mitchell Butler hopes to play Wednesday night against Cal State Fullerton at Pauley Pavilion. “I’m going to do a lot of therapy on it and we’ll see what it looks like then,” Butler said of his sprained left wrist. “I think there’s a very high chance that I’ll play in the next game.” . . . Forward Jiri Zidek had a personal-best 14 points and a season-high five rebounds in a reserve role.