UCLA's Defense Clamps Down on Pittsburgh

UCLA 64, Pittsburgh 55

SAN JOSE, March 22 -- Ben Howland's second-seeded UCLA Bruins knocked off the third-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers coached by Howland's protege, 64-55 on Thursday, to set up a West Region final matchup against Kansas.

Howland and Dixon are longtime friends who helped rebuild the Pittsburgh program together, and their teams staged a defensive battle that fit well with their reputations. But in the end, the Bruins (29-5) were sharper as they moved within one victory of returning to the Final Four.

Arron Afflalo scored 17 points to lead the Bruins. Josh Shipp added 16 while Darren Collison finished with 12.

Throughout the week, the matchup between Howland, the former Pitt coach, and Dixon, his former top assistant, dominated the buzz before the game. Friends, family and former Pitt players flocked to a game that Howland afterward called "surreal."

"I hope that we never play again," Howland said, growing emotional as he talked about his first meeting against the program he left in Dixon's care in 2003.

Guard Ronald Ramon led the Panthers (29-8) with 12 points while 7-foot star center Aaron Gray struggled to just 10, mostly because of the pressure applied by UCLA, which continued its string of impressive defensive performances in the NCAA tournament. Pittsburgh lost in the region semifinals for the fourth time in six seasons; the Panthers have not reached the region finals since 1974.

While Pitt became the first team to break the 50-point mark against the Bruins, which allowed an average of 45.5 points in its first two tournament game, the Panthers managed to shoot just 36 percent.

Two late three-pointers by Ramon and another by guard Levance Fields cut the lead to five with less than 90 seconds left. But the flurry came too late for the Panthers, who could only watch as Shipp hit two free throws with 32 seconds remaining to put away the game.

Howland said before the game he wanted to prevent Gray from catching the ball close to the basket, where he is a dangerous threat to score and trigger the inside-outside game the Panthers have used throughout the season.

UCLA big men Lorenzo Mata (6-9) and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (6-8) made sure that Howland's plan was executed to perfection. Mata took the lead -- with Mbah a Moute coming to help -- in harassing Gray for 32 minutes. The big man who had been so instrumental in Pittsburgh's run never got into a rhythm.

"He had to be our most valuable player in the game tonight, with what he did offensively and defensively," Afflalo said of Mata, who finished with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

The Bruins squeezed the life out of the Panthers, slowly and systematically, starting early in the second half. After Pittsburgh shot 40 percent in the first half, that number started to plummet as the Bruins exercised their will.

With the Panthers trailing by just seven early in the second half, Pitt guard-forward Mike Cook drove to the basket only to watch his layup slide on top of the rim and fall out. Seconds later, Gray found himself alone under the basket after his team got out in transition. He, too, failed to finish before committing an over-the-back foul.

Pitt went on to miss four layups in a four-minute span, part of a stretch in which the Panthers missed nine straight field goal attempts. By the midway point of the second half, the Bruins forced the Panthers to endure a nearly five-minute span with nothing but a free throw.

After falling behind by as much as 10, the Panthers cut the UCLA lead to 48-42 when Panthers forward Sam Young hit a free throw to complete a three-point play with little more than six minutes left. But the Bruins pushed right back, scoring six straight to push the lead to 12.

UCLA led 32-26 at the intermission and enjoyed a lead as high as eight points in the first half.