UCLA had just given up back-to-back offensive rebounds midway through the second half when a roar emerged from the small crowd inside Pauley Pavilion.
The few fans who showed up were cheering the massive young man lumbering toward the scorer’s table to check into the game against Cal State Fullerton for the first time.
The volume only went up every time Aday Mara touched the ball.
On his first opportunity Friday night, the sophomore center made a layup in traffic. The next time he took a pass, a murmur built into a crescendo as he rose for a jump hook.
When he took a pass that guard Kobe Johnson zipped between two defenders for a dunk, the crowd erupted. There was more to cheer when a Mara block led to a layup by teammate Eric Dailey Jr. Finally, some fans rose from their seats in appreciation of his lob dunk from guard Trent Perry.
The 7-foot-3 Mara’s contribution in just a handful of minutes matched his massive size and added some needed pizzazz to the Bruins’ 80-47 victory over the Titans.
“Hella fun,” Johnson said of having a target of Mara’s size. “There’s a lot of passes that you could throw that you can’t really throw to many other people. You could throw them in spots to where only he could catch it. So it’s definitely fun to have a big fella like that out there.”
UCLA coach Mick Cronin rewarded Mara for his strong play by leaving him in for the rest of the game, even allowing him to play alongside fellow big man William Kyle III. Mara finished with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 13 minutes.
His output was all the more impressive considering the training staff had told Cronin about a half-hour before the game that they didn’t know if Mara could play because of bad headaches. Later, Mara told Cronin he wanted to play.
“He looked like he felt great to me,” Cronin said.
Mara’s play was encouraging for a team seeking stability in the frontcourt after the departure of Adem Bona to the NBA. Cronin has said he eventually wants to play Kyle alongside starting forwards Tyler Bilodeau and Dailey but needed to see more from Mara as a capable substitute to make that happen.
What the ambidextrous Mara showed Friday was his ability to impact the game in a variety of ways, with one exception.
“The only thing I don’t like is the left-handed hook,” Cronin said, alluding to his misses with that hand. “He tells me he was better with his left hand in [his native] Spain. I said, ‘Well, you’re in Los Angeles. So you’re 0 for Los Angeles with the left-handed hook.’”
Johnson sparked his team’s strong defensive effort with a career-high-tying six steals as UCLA (5-1) scored 27 points off the 21 turnovers it forced. Johnson added 12 points, six rebounds and five assists in his best all-around effort as a Bruin. Dailey and Bilodeau added 11 points apiece and Perry matched Mara with 10 points off the bench.
UCLA’s defense triggered a big chunk of its offense on the way to building a 39-25 halftime lead.
In a sign of things to come, the Bruins forced the Titans (1-5) into a shot-clock violation on the game’s first possession. A highlight sequence came shortly after when Johnson snagged a steal and threw an outlet pass to Dylan Andrews, who found a trailing Dailey with a bounce pass for a ferocious one-handed dunk.
Only 7½ minutes into the game, UCLA had tallied five steals and forced seven turnovers leading to nine points. Johnson piled up four steals by halftime, showing a glimpse of why Cronin had labeled him a potential candidate for defensive player of the year.
Over the first five games, Johnson had not lived up to that billing.
“He’s had some silly fouls, which I’ve been on him all summer since he transferred,” Cronin said, referring to Johnson’s move from USC. “You know, you’ve got to be able to play great defense without fouling. You’ve got to be able to trap the guy and not just try to steal the ball every time, close the traps. It’s just little things that I’m trying to put more discipline into what he does. Not be careless sometimes with his passing.”
Keith Richard and Davis Bynum each scored 10 points for the Titans, who shot just 28.8% to UCLA’s 50%.
Just the mention of Fullerton might have given Cronin the heebie-jeebies. The previous time the Titans came to Pauley Pavilion, during Cronin’s first season, UCLA’s Prince Ali committed a terrible turnover on the Bruins’ final possession and Fullerton came away with a 77-74 victory.
There would be no upset this time. Not even close.
