UCLA, Love hold MVSU to record-low 29 points
Freshman star scores 20 as No. 1 seed Bruins crush Delta Devils 70-29
 Lisa Blumenfeld / Getty Images Players on the Mississippi Valley State bench look on as UCLA romps the Delta Devils 70-29 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday. |
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - Getting the ball stuck behind the backboard merely delayed the inevitable for Mississippi Valley State.
Freshman Kevin Love scored 20 points and dislodged the trapped ball as top-seeded UCLA cruised to a 70-29 victory against the overmatched Delta Devils in the NCAA tournament on Thursday night.
“No mercy out there,” Love said. “We didn’t feel too bad for them.”
Seeking a third consecutive Final Four berth, the Bruins (32-3) advanced to a second-round West Region game against No. 9 Texas A&M (25-10), a 67-62 winner over BYU.
UCLA’s 11th consecutive victory was on a par with its other opening-round blowouts over the years, most recently identical 34-point wins over Belmont in 2006 and Charleston Southern in 1997.
“We had to come out and jump on them as much as possible,” Love said. “We did a great job on the defensive end. It was a lot of fun.”
Mississippi Valley State scored the fewest points in the tournament since 1946, when Baylor had 29 in a loss to Oklahoma State. The Delta Devils also set two dubious first-round records. They had the fewest points in a game, breaking the mark of 32 by Wisconsin against Missouri State in 1999. Their 19.7 percent was the lowest field-goal shooting rate, worse than North Carolina A&T’s 27.1 percent against Princeton in 1983.
“Let’s don’t concentrate on that,” coach James Green said.
Larry Cox Jr. had eight points and seven rebounds to lead the Delta Devils, who managed just 26 points against Washington State of the Pac-10 in November.
The Delta Devils (17-16) had their nine-game winning streak snapped in the first NCAA appearance since 1996 for the 3,767-student school from Itta Bena, Miss., best known as the alma mater of NFL career receiving leader Jerry Rice.
“What you saw was no indication of what went on with our guys during our conference,” Green said. “We don’t want our guys to feel like this was their season. It was a situation we hadn’t been in and we didn’t respond. I still love my guys.”
The Delta Devils made just five baskets in the second half.
“The defensive pressure wasn’t that bad,” guard Stanford Speech said. “It was the banging and bumping around. We don’t see that in our conference. Those guys are great. They know how to play. If we’d have played our best game, we’d still have lost by 10 or 15.”
It wasn’t a fair fight from the opening tip. The bigger Bruins raced to a 12-4 lead in the first five minutes, leaving no doubt that No. 1 seeds would improve to 94-0 against 16th seeds.
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Love scored eight points, including two 3-pointers, and also rested during some of the spurt. His backup Lorenzo Mata-Real got UCLA fans roaring with consecutive rim-rattling dunks. Love’s third 3-point closed out the half with the Bruins ahead 40-16.
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Love strained his lower back in the Pac-10 tournament and said he had some spasms while standing, but he played through them.
Mata-Real had nine points and nine rebounds and Russell Westbrook had nine points and seven assists as everyone but DeAndre Robinson scored for the Bruins.
“It feels like we coached and played in the NBA for a game,” Green said.
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