They’re Baaack

Cedric Bozeman stared at the ball in his hands as the final second disappeared from the clock on the scoreboard Saturday evening.

“All the years of frustration, all the adversity,” said Bozeman, a fifth-year senior for UCLA, “it was all in that basketball.”

Those were years when the Bruins, the most successful team in college basketball history, showed flashes of brilliance, teased their fans and gave hints of a return to past glory only to come up short of the Final Four.

But no longer.

On Saturday, in a dominating defensive performance even by its high standards, second-seeded UCLA defeated top-seeded Memphis, 50-45, in the Oakland Regional final to give the Bruins their first Final Four berth since 1995, a season that ended with their 11th NCAA championship.

It was the lowest-scoring regional final since the shot clock was instituted in 1986.

UCLA will play Louisiana State, a winner Saturday in overtime against Texas, next Saturday at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

“What a great feeling to still be playing,” said Coach Ben Howland, who will be leading UCLA into its 16th Final Four, tying North Carolina for the most in NCAA history. “Our defense was just incredible.”

It certainly wasn’t a pretty game. Ugly would be a far better description, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nobody in the Bruin contingent among the Arena crowd of 19,689 -- not Howland, not Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, not Bozeman or teammates Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo and Ryan Hollins, who was chosen as the most outstanding player of the regional, was complaining.

In winning its 11th consecutive game and improving to 31-6, UCLA avenged one of its losses this season.

Playing Memphis in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in November, UCLA lost, 88-80.

How did the Bruins hold the Tigers to a little more than half that total? The numbers are clear. The Tigers, who came in averaging 81 points and shooting 45.5%, shot 31.5% Saturday, making 17 of 54 shots, including only two of 17 from three-point range.

Of the three Tigers who came in scoring double figures in points, only guard Darius Washington managed to do so Saturday, connecting on four of 10 from the floor and totaling 13 points.

Forward Rodney Carney, who came in averaging 17.5 points, had Afflalo in his face most of the night and was held to five points on two-for-12 shooting.

Great defense or bad offense?

“We picked the wrong day to miss 15 one-footers,” Memphis Coach John Calipari said. “We just couldn’t make a basket. Please, make a basket. Make a free throw, a hook, anything. Kick one in.”

Calipari conceded that his team’s offensive difficulties were caused, at least in part, by UCLA’s physical play, by the Bruins’ ability to bump and grind and throw a team that loves to run off kilter.

And it’s good thing for UCLA that it was able to do so, because its offense wasn’t exactly operating on all cylinders. UCLA shot only 35%, making 14 of 40, including two of eight from three-point range. The Bruins made only four baskets in the second half.

Afflalo, the team’s leading scorer, had a game-high 15 points but made only two of nine from the floor. Farmar had four points and made one of nine shots, connecting on a jumper late in the game.

The Bruins’ free-throw shooting was especially dismal -- 20 of 39. It got so bad that when Afflalo -- an exception in that he made nine of 10 -- put in a free throw early in the second half, he got a huge cheer from the crowd.

“That was not for me,” he said. “It was for our team.”

UCLA also lost the battle of the boards, Memphis outrebounding the Bruins, 41-36, although Hollins had a game-high nine rebounds along with 14 points.

But the number that ultimately mattered was the final score. UCLA took over the lead in the first four minutes of the game, led by as many as 12 points and was never caught by Memphis (33-4).

Asked how he would have reacted if he had been watching such a defensive struggle on television, Bozeman, who has been through losing seasons and a string of serious injuries, said, “I probably would have turned it off. But this is what we do. We play defense. And to fight through it all, still be here and go to the Final Four is unbelievable.”

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Bruins in regional title games

UCLA results in NCAA regional championship games (with Final Four results in parentheses):

1962 -- defeated Oregon State, 88-69 (lost to Cincinnati, 72-70, in national semifinals).

* 1964 -- defeated San Francisco, 76-62 (defeated Duke, 98-83, for national championship).

* 1965 -- defeated San Francisco, 101-93 (defeated Michigan, 91-80, for national championship).

* 1967 -- defeated Pacific, 80-64 (defeated Dayton, 79-64, for national championship).

* 1968 -- defeated Santa Clara, 87-66 (defeated North Carolina, 78-55, for national championship).

* 1969 -- defeated Santa Clara, 90-52 (defeated Purdue, 92-72, for national championship).

* 1970 -- defeated Utah State, 101-79 (defeated Jacksonville, 80-69, for national championship).

* 1971 -- defeated Long Beach State, 57-55 (defeated Villanova, 68-62, for national championship).

* 1972 -- defeated Long Beach State, 73-57 (defeated Florida State, 81-76, for national championship).

* 1973 -- defeated San Francisco, 54-39 (defeated Memphis State, 87-66, for national championship).

* 1974 -- defeated San Francisco, 83-60 (lost to North Carolina State, 80-77, in national semifinals).

* 1975 -- defeated Arizona State, 89-75 (defeated Kentucky, 92-85, for national championship).

* 1976 -- defeated Arizona, 82-66 (lost to Indiana, 65-51, in semifinals).

* 1979 -- lost to DePaul, 95-91.

* 1980 -- defeated Clemson, 85-74 (lost to Louisville, 59-54, in national championship game).

* 1992 -- lost to Indiana, 106-79.

* 1995 -- defeated Connecticut, 102-96 (defeated Arkansas, 89-78, for national championship).

* 1997 -- lost to Minnesota, 80-72.

* 2006 -- defeated Memphis, 50-45.