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Love Leads UCLA To 41-point Win Over Miss. Valley State

POSTED: 11:56 pm PDT March 20, 2008

(Sports Network) - Kevin Love scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, as top-seeded UCLA blew past Mississippi Valley State, 70-29, in the first round of the West Region in the NCAA Tournament.

Love was the only player in double figures, scoring almost a point per minute in the rout. UCLA (32-3), which will face Texas A&M on Saturday with a date in the Sweet 16 on the line, also received nine points and seven assists from Russell Westbrook and nine more points from Lorenzo Mata-Real.

"We really played good defense tonight, obviously. Real pleased with the defense," said UCLA head coach Ben Howland. "We had 13 blocked shots; that's a lot of blocked shots."

Larry Cox led the Delta Devils (17-16) with eight points and Carl Lucas notched six in the loss, as Mississippi Valley State shot just 19.7 percent from the floor. That's the lowest mark since 1962 when Creighton shot 19.4 percent in a loss to Cincinnati.

"Well, mainly the defensive pressure wasn't that bad; it was more of the banging, bumping around," said Delta Devil Stanford Speech about the Bruins' defensive presence. "We don't see a lot of that in our conference. And, you know, it was kind of hard to adjust."

Mississippi Valley State had the fewest points in an NCAA Tournament game since 1946 when Baylor had the same amount in a loss to Oklahoma State. The 29 points were also the fewest ever in a first-round game, breaking the mark of 32 by Wisconsin in a defeat to Southwest Missouri State in 1999.

The Bruins, trying for a third consecutive Final Four berth, got off to a quick start. Love's layup posted the Bruins to an early 7-2 lead, then the big man stepped out and drained a three for a 15-6 edge. After Cox's jumper cut the deficit to 12-6 moments later, the Bruins reeled off 14 straight points capped by Josh Shipp's layup with 10:18 left in the half.

The advantage grew to 31-8 on another Love trey, and his tip-back of his own miss made the score 35-8 with 5:42 to play. UCLA put a 40-16 margin into the locker room.

The Bruins defense held Mississippi Valley State to 22.2 percent shooting and an 0-of-9 effort from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

UCLA kept pouring it on in the second half. After Michael Clark drained a three to open the half for Mississippi Valley State, the Bruins notched the next 13 points to turn the game into a large laugher.

Darren Collison started the stretch with an easy lay-in and he finished it with a three-pointer for a 53-19 lead with 14:11 on the clock.

The Bruins put the game on cruise control from there.

Game Notes

The Delta Devils still have not won in four tournament appearances...UCLA won its 95th...The Delta Devils made just 1-of-14 shots from beyond the arc...UCLA shot an efficient 47.4 percent from the floor and assisted on 20 of 27 made baskets...Love made a trio of three-pointers.



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