UCLA Never Looks Back on Its Way to Title Game

UCLA, behind its tenacious defense, precision offense and the confidence from a winning streak that has reached 12 games, defeated Louisiana State, 59-45, Saturday night to reach the championship game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

The Bruins’ opponent Monday night at the RCA Dome will be the other survivor from the original field of 65 teams, the Florida Gators. Florida defeated the Patriots of George Mason earlier Saturday, 73-58.

UCLA will be seeking a record 12th NCAA title with a team that has consistently put substance above style under Coach Ben Howland.

“People haven’t been picking us all season,” senior Cedric Bozeman said. “We weren’t even picked in our own [Pacific 10] conference.”

UCLA (32-6) took the lead early, held a 39-24 advantage at halftime, and took off at the start of the second half. Jordan Farmar’s long three-point basket made the score 48-27 early in the second half, and the game was essentially over at that point.

These aren’t the Bruins of legendary coach John Wooden, teams that produced superstars such as Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton.

This young team, operating without the benefit of a dominating figure, succeeds on the theory that stopping the opponent’s offense with a tough, in-your-face approach must be the first priority.

As for the top individual performer, no one on the team has a monopoly on that designation.

Saturday, it was Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, a most unlikely figure to be leading a basketball team on a national stage. The 19-year-old freshman didn’t begin playing organized basketball in his native Cameroon until five years ago. He still isn’t sure whether his parents have seen him play on television back home.

If they tuned in Saturday, they saw Mbah a Moute enjoy perhaps his best game of the season. He scored a game-high 17 points, making five of nine shots and seven of eight free throws. He also led all rebounders with nine and was a key figure in the Bruins’ successful effort to neutralize LSU’s Glen Davis, the 6-9, 310-pounder nicknamed the Big Baby.

The Tigers (27-9) became the 11th opponent in the Bruins’ winning streak to score 60 or fewer points. LSU was averaging 73.9 points a game.

Howland uses a man-to-man defense rather than a zone and double-teams the opponent’s biggest threats. LSU had two potentially dominating players, Davis and fellow forward Tyrus Thomas, a 6-9, 215-pounder who was described by Howland before the game as a “shot-blocking, fly-swatting machine.”

Trying to function against the suffocating Bruin defense, Davis scored a team-high 14 points but was largely ineffective, making only five of 17 shots. Thomas blocked three shots but scored only five points.

“We wear people down,” UCLA center Lorenzo Mata said, “and that’s what happened tonight. Big Baby, he got tired. They were in shock. They couldn’t prepare for our defense.”

The Bruins’ effectiveness when the other team has the ball is equal parts technique and toughness. Considering the number of injuries suffered by UCLA this season -- all 12 scholarship players have been hurt at one time or another -- the Bruins wouldn’t still be playing if they couldn’t play through pain.

That was evident Saturday night. Senior center Ryan Hollins was playing with his right leg tightly wrapped above the knee because of a bruise that knocked him out of practice Friday. Mata was playing with a protective mask to shield his nose, which he broke in practice Wednesday. Farmar was playing with tape on a bruised left wrist.

And while Bozeman showed no visible signs of injury, he is playing with torn cartilage in the back of his left shoulder and tendinitis in his right knee.

Now they must hang on, soothed by ice, protected by bandages and safeguarded by a mask, for one more game.

“I don’t know how much better I can be,” Mbah a Moute said. “All I know is, every time I step on the court, I give my best.”

So far, that has been enough to stretch a season beyond the imagination of all but the most optimistic of Bruin fans.