But against Xavier they reverted to the form that made them a No. 1 seed.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Darren Collison added 19 points for UCLA, which shot 53.8 percent from the floor and won its 14th straight.

Derrick Brown had 13 points for Xavier.

This matched Xavier’s deepest foray into the NCAA brackets. The Musketeers had reached the regional final once before, in 2004.

Early on, Xavier looked as if it might be able to hang with UCLA. After turning the ball over a season-high 19 times in the third round, the Bruins had 10 turnovers in the first half on Saturday.

But the Musketeers only scored two points off those turnovers — and it cost them when UCLA finally settled down.

Leading 24-20, the Bruins closed the first half on a 9-4 run. The leader of the charge was Mbah a Moute, who has been slowed by a sprained ankle.

Mbah a Moute scored five straight points, all of them as a result of some gritty work on the offensive boards.

“All I can tell you is I didn’t have any pain,” Mbah a Moute said.

Then Collison dribbled down the clock and hit a jumper over Stanley Burrell, the Atlantic 10’s Defensive Player of the Year, to send the Bruins into the dressing room with a 33-24 lead.

The biggest bucket may have come when Love pulled down an offensive rebound on a missed free throw, then fired the ball to Collison loitering beyond the arc. Collison hit the 3-pointer and UCLA led 43-28.

A few minutes later, Love buried a 3-pointer and the Bruins led by 20.

MORE FROM COLLEGE BASKETBALL

College basketball Section Front

Hope for even the worst FT shooters. Or not. Davis: Youthful UCLA will make noise eventually   Vote: Who will be player of the year? Seton Hall basketball player charged with DWI Beyond the Arc: Celebrating college hoops’ last Rebels 5 Razorbacks suspended for opener Minnesota freshman White under suspicion again Beyond the Arc: Carolina will be scary good by March Men’s Top 25 preview, analysis, stats, more Davis: Kansas tops 2009-10 hoops storylines College basketball Section Front   Add College basketball headlines to your news reader: