Bruins outlast USC
LOS ANGELES – UCLA took another opponent’s best shot and barely survived.
Freshman Kevin Love scored 11 points in a 15-2 run to open the second half that propelled the third-ranked Bruins to a 57-54 victory over Southern California in the Pac-10 men’s tournament semifinals Friday night.
Love had 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 20th double-double in the first postseason meeting between crosstown rivals who’ve played 225 other times. They split in the regular season.
“That was a great win,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “We beat a really, really good team in USC. USC can make a huge, deep, long run in the NCAA tournament.”
USC coach Tim Floyd returned the compliment, noting, “A lot of people are picking UCLA to win the national championship.”
The Bruins (30-3) won their ninth in a row and advanced to today’s title game.
UCLA became the third school in NCAA history to win 30 or more games in three straight seasons, joining Kentucky and Memphis.
Freshman O.J. Mayo led the fourth-seeded Trojans (21-11) with 15 points. Freshman Davon Jefferson added 12 points.
Mayo rallied the Trojans over the final 4 minutes, scoring seven in a row to close to 54-52. He fouled Darren Collison, who made 1 of 2 free throws to keep UCLA ahead 55-52 with 1:26 remaining.
Daniel Hackett got fouled, made both and USC drew within a point with 31.6 seconds left. The Trojans were forced to foul Collison, who made both for a 57-54 lead. Collison got poked in the eye and “made those two shots bleary-eyed,” Howland said.
Mayo dribbled the clock down until putting up the potential game-tying 3-pointer over Josh Shipp with 2 seconds to go. It missed and Hackett rebounded but couldn’t get a shot off before time expired.
“I thought I made it,” Mayo said. “It felt good coming off, just missed the shot. We played our hearts out and left everything on the floor and just came up short.”
The Bruins overcame the loss of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who sprained his left ankle after coming down on Jefferson’s foot with 6:11 remaining in the first half.
Howland said Mbah a Moute won’t play today. He re-injured the same ankle that sidelined him last month.
The Trojans led 34-28 at halftime after contesting most of UCLA’s shots. That flustered Bruins into shooting 10 of 28 from the floor and 2 of 9 from 3-point range after hitting 14 3s in a quarterfinal win against California.
Jefferson scored nine of USC’s first 11 points. Keith Wilkinson hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Trojans’ largest lead of eight before Mayo scored their final four points of the half.
“Whenever we get down, we have a never-quit attitude,” Shipp said.