Young Love blossoms
LOS ANGELES – UCLA coach Ben Howland has said it before and he hopes he gets to say it a bunch more during Kevin Love’s career.
Love, the remarkably polished freshman center, poured in a career-high 27 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and shared team-high honors with four assists to lift the fifth-ranked Bruins to an 81-74 victory over No. 4 Washington State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
“I keep saying this, I said it last week – he had the best game of his career,” Howland said. “That’s good. I hope he keeps having more best games of his career as we keep moving forward. He was an absolute beast.”
Pregame hype centered on the matchup between Love, a 6-foot-10, 271-pounder, and WSU counterpart Aron Baynes, who checks in at 6-10 and 270. Love dominated, making 9 of 12 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers. Baynes, WSU’s second-leading scorer at 12.1 ppg, was held to eight points, six coming at the foul line, despite a couple of airballs – in 28 minutes.
“He’s a big guy,” Love said of Baynes. “He looks like he’s about to be in the Outdoor Games and about to chop down a tree or something like that. He’s actually about 30 pounds stronger than (Washington’s Jon) Brockman. I had to just get low and box him out as much as I could.”
Love’s previous best game was a 19-point, 14-rebound effort in a victory over California last week. His career high was 22 points against Portland State. Love surpassed that mark with a bucket inside, giving UCLA a 66-53 lead with 2:34 remaining. Love made a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to put the Bruins on top by five and finally repel a late WSU comeback.
“He makes you pay if you get out of position,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “They run great stuff to get him open, sure, and they’ve got great penetrators and all that, but when a guy like that can step out and shoot the 3. … He can power position, he’s got good moves, touch, gets on the glass and his ability to pass. He was so tough.”
Baynes was double-teamed nearly every time he touched the ball. UCLA was quick to recover and defend the kick-out pass.
“To limit him to three shots is a huge stat,” Howland said.
Baynes, who declined interview requests, was coming off one of his best games of the season – 18 points and nine rebounds against USC.
“He was frustrated a little bit out there and he got a couple of fouls at big times in the game,” Cougars wing Kyle Weaver said. “I tried to talk to him. But we’ll have to learn from this.”
Love showed a variety of moves. His first three baskets came on a putback, a jump hook and a drive from the high post that resulted in a pair of free throws. Early in the second half, he hit a step-back bank shot. He made a pair of key 3-pointers and also posted up Robbie Cowgill under the basket for another trip to the foul line.