UCLA is looking to solve the hole thing

Great fun, these UCLA comebacks.

A 13-point deficit against Michigan State erased in a 68-63 victory Nov. 20.

An 18-point deficit against Davidson obliterated in a 75-63 runaway Dec. 8.

Down eight to Michigan in the second half Dec. 22, nearly forgotten after a 69-54 rout.

Down seven to Oregon on Jan. 24, before rising up to win, 80-75, at Eugene.

And then, last week’s double drama:

The Bruins trailed Stanford most of the game last Thursday before rallying for a 77-67 overtime victory, helped by their wits and a controversial foul on the Cardinal’s Lawrence Hill that put Darren Collison at the free-throw line near the end of regulation.

After trailing California by 11 points three times in the second half Saturday, the Bruins scratched out an 81-80 victory on an arching shot by Josh Shipp that sent Pauley Pavilion into a tizzy.

Each of those games was terrific theater.

Each of those games was tough on the nerves.

“We can’t let it happen again,” Collison said firmly.

Those comebacks -- and others -- have given the Bruins a strong collective belief that no hole is too deep to escape.

“We always find a way to come back and win the game. We know how to win,” senior center Lorenzo Mata-Real said. “We never quit when we’re down.”

But they’ve also realized it’s not wise to tempt fate anymore.

An unfocused first half might not hurt them much against California in their Pacific 10 Conference tournament quarterfinal game today at Staples Center.

It’s the prospect of playing three games in three days that has the Bruins (28-3, 16-2 in the Pac-10) thinking they shouldn’t put themselves in position to expend more emotional and physical energy than they have to.

“We can’t dig ourselves a hole, and I think this team understands that,” Collison said. “I think it’s going to be a different story going into the first game of the Pac-10 tournament.”

A stumble today or Friday would wound their pride and might cost them the No. 1 NCAA seeding, as a quarterfinal loss to Cal did last year. It wouldn’t wreck their season.

A stumble next week would be a different story.

“If we lose one game when all the madness is going on, we’re out,” center Kevin Love said.

“We need to get out and jump on teams early and not let that happen to us.”

This comeback thing isn’t new. As Coach Ben Howland said the other day, the Bruins have become good second-half performers the last few seasons.

They faced 10-point deficits at least three times last season and overcame two of them. In a four-game stretch in January they trailed in each game -- never by a lot -- and won each time. And in the Elite Eight last March, they trailed Kansas, 27-21, before taking control and winning, 68-55.

Neither Howland nor his players could explain the team’s pattern of starting slow but finishing fast.

Some of it, Mata-Real suggested, stems from facing a burst of energy from opponents who are charged up to play UCLA.

“Every team is going to come in and try to beat us, especially because we’re one of the top teams in the country,” he said.

“We have a bull’s-eye on our chest. Every team is out to get us.”

Howland doesn’t seem perturbed about the Bruins’ record of needing so many rallies.

“One thing I’m really proud about our team is they never, ever give up,” he said. “They always believe they’re going to find a way to win the game. You have to be able to do that.

“We’ve had a lot of comebacks, not just this year, over the last three years, of games we’ve been down. I believe last year’s team, we were down so much at the end of the halves. And they never lost their composure.”

But as Howland said, the difference from top to near-bottom isn’t huge this season in the Pac-10 or many other conferences. Why risk falling behind to a team that isn’t all that much inferior and is emotionally stoked?

“We’re not perfect,” Howland said. “I would rather be up bell to bell and come out and jump on people and stay that way, but that’s not how it works.”

So far, the Bruins have been able to count on their resilience. They’re just becoming wary of reaching for it and coming up empty one day.

“It’s definitely an emotional roller coaster,” Shipp said. “It’s a lot of up and down. But as a player it is fun to be part of those games. They’re close games and you want to win those games, and luckily for us we are winning those games.

“But it definitely takes a lot out of you. We don’t want to have those close games. If we could just come out and jump on teams and stay on them, we won’t have those.”

Collison is willing to take the lead in eliminating the late-game drama.

“I’ve got to do what I can to get the team fired up so we don’t have slow starts, so we come out and play like we need to play,” he said.

“We’re a second-half team but we should come out on top and not dig ourselves a hole.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.