Chances may turn on one ankle for the Bruins

For everyone else in the Staples Center, it was 6:43 p.m.

For UCLA, it might have been midnight.

For everyone else in the Staples Center, the chant was “Luuuuuuuuc.”

For UCLA, it sounded like “Ewwwwwwww.”

The Bruins’ legitimate NCAA championship hopes have fallen, and they might not get up.

For all the high-flying and hair-raising wonder of UCLA’s 57-54 victory over USC on Friday, the most important person spent the second half lying on the end of the court on his back.

Left ankle covered in ice. Left leg propped up on duffel bags. Head resting against the hardwood, staring up at the giant scoreboard.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute prides himself on being a team player, but that was ridiculous.

“I wanted to show my guys I still supported them,” he said.

That support, however, is gone today, buckled under a sprained ankle suffered in the first half when Mbah a Moute landed wrong on Davon Jefferson’s foot.

Mbah a Moute dropped to the floor. He curled up in a ball. The other players ran to the other end of the court, but thousands of eyes remained fixed on him.

“It felt like the ankle exploded,” he said.

As he lay there writhing, thoughts of the Bruins’ last two Final Four runs writhed along with him. He carried them to the finals in 2006 with big games against Gonzaga and Louisiana State. He pushed them to the semifinals in 2007 with a big game against Indiana and big defense against everyone.

When he was finally carried by teammate to the sidelines, then mercifully lifted into the locker room for an exam, you wondered whether the Bruins’ hopes weren’t disappearing with him.

The X-rays were negative, but so are the numbers.

In games this season in which Mbah a Moute has left early with injury or missed entirely, the Bruins are 4-2.

They lost only three games all season.

He’s their best interior defender. He’s one of their toughest rebounders.

Nobody on the team is cooler under pressure. No starter has been a bigger consistent influence on the younger players. During March crunch time of the past two seasons, while the likes of Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo have been their face, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has always been their pulse. Before Friday, in every only-for-fun bracket I could collect, I was going to pick UCLA to win the national title.

Now, like a bunch of other people I know, I will wait.

Those people reside in the UCLA locker room.

I asked Coach Ben Howland whether they could win the national title without him.

“I would be very difficult,” he said.

I asked Love if they could win the title without him.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

About the only person who seems to believe they can survive without Mbah a Moute was sitting in the corner of the borrowed Lakers locker room with his left foot in a giant orange cooler of ice.

Of course Mbah a Moute always thinks they win it all. That’s why he’s Luc.

“I’m just one kid, I can be easily replaced,” he said.

He said the pain had subsided considerably, and the ankle didn’t feel as bad as when he sprained it earlier this season.

He remembered that when he sprained it the first time, recovery took, “about a week, maybe a week and a half.”

If that scenario is true this time, he would miss the Bruins’ first two tournament games. With a top seeding, they should be able to win those games without him.

If he returns at close to 100% in time for the Sweet 16, they can survive. If he doesn’t, and they are matched up against a bigger team, you better duck.

Alfred Aboya would probably replace him, but he doesn’t have the quickness or wingspan of Mbah a Moute, and he’s not as much of an offensive threat.

James Keefe replaced Mbah a Moute on Friday because he was a better matchup against USC. But Keefe played only two minutes combined in last weekend’s two wins against Stanford and Cal, and is still another off-season from being strong enough.

“We are very dependent on Luc,” said Howland. “He has done so many little things. Only people who really understand basketball get all the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.”

As Mbah a Moute climbed up from his courtside bed and left the floor after the Bruins’ victory Friday, fans serenaded him with his trademark chant while he bobbed his head with his trademark smile.

It was at that moment that you couldn’t help but notice two other little things that don’t show up on stat sheet.

Crutches.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.