UCLA nips Arizona, remains on top of Pac-10

Kevin Love had 24 points and 15 rebounds and No. 4 UCLA hung on to defeat Arizona 68-66 on Sunday in Tucson, Ariz., the Bruins’ seventh straight victory over the Wildcats.

The Bruins led by six points with 90 seconds to go, but had to withstand a last-second shot by Jerryd Bayless, which came up short.

UCLA also blew an 11-point first half lead and fell behind 47-43 early in the second half. But the Bruins rallied behind Love, who scored 15 points after intermission and had his 18th double-double.

UCLA (26-3, 14-2 Pac-10), remained one game ahead of No. 8 Stanford in the Pac-10 race. The Bruins meet the Cardinal on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Chase Budinger had 24 points for Arizona (17-12, 7-9), which has lost six of seven and is in danger of snapping its 23-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances, the longest in the nation.

Jordan Hill had 18 points and Bayless added 15 for the Wildcats.

With Darren Collison hitting his first five shots from the floor, UCLA cruised to an 11-point lead with 4:13 to go in the first half. But Arizona went on a 13-4 run to pull within 41-39 at intermission.

Two minutes after halftime, the Wildcats took their first lead since the opening minute when Bayless stole the ball and raced the length of the court for a dunk to put Arizona up 42-41.

Hill hit his first seven shots from the floor. But he picked up his fourth foul with 8:16 to go in the game. That’s when Love took over, with nine points in the final 8:16.

(1) Tennessee 63, Kentucky 60: At Knoxville, Tenn., Chris Lofton scored 14 points, including a jump shot with 1:15 left, and the Volunteers (26-3, 12-2) squeaked by the Wildcats (16-11, 10-4) to stay atop the Southeastern Conference.

Derrick Jasper hit a 3-pointer to cut the Vols’ lead to 63-60, but Jasper and Joe Crawford both missed 3-point shots in the final 20 seconds that would have sent the game to overtime.

(19) Michigan State 103, (12) Indiana 74: At East Lansing, Mich., Raymar Morgan scored 12 of his 20 points early to help the Spartans (23-6, 11-5 Big Ten) defeat the Hoosiers (24-5, 13-3).

Michigan State led 59-31 at halftime after making 78 percent of its shots, including nine 3-pointers.

(13) Louisville 68, Villanova 54: At Louisville, Ky., Juan Palacios scored 13 points in his final game at Freedom Hall to lead the Cardinals (24-6, 14-3) to a win over the Wildcats (17-11, 7-9), setting up a showdown with No. 11 Georgetown next weekend for the Big East title.

Malcolm Grant led Villanova with 11 points, but the Wildcats shot just 40 percent from the field and turned the ball over 14 times in losing their second straight, damaging their hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

(17) Notre Dame 98, DePaul 91: At Rosemont, Ill., Luke Harangody scored 24 points, Rob Kurz added 21 and the Fighting Irish (22-6, 12-4) hung on to beat the Blue Demons (10-18, 5-11) and clinch a first-round bye in the Big East tournament.

Mac Koshwal had 23 points and 10 rebounds for DePaul, which suffered its ninth loss in 10 games.

Oregon 80, Oregon State 68: At Corvallis, Ore., Maarty Leunen had a career-high 32 points and the Ducks (16-12, 7-9 Pac-10) ended the game on a 12-3 run in a victory over the Beavers (6-22, 0-16).

Leunen scored 23 points and hit six of his seven 3-pointers in the second half for Oregon in the 329th meeting between the schools, the most in college basketball.

Lathen Wallace had a career-high 18 points for Oregon State.

Boise State 78, Hawaii 71: At Honolulu, Reggie Larry had 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Broncos (22-7, 12-3 WAC) past the Warriors (11-16, 7-7) on Saturday night.

Tyler Tiedeman added 22 points for Boise State and Mark Sanchez had 14.