Top-ranked UCLA got the inside edge on Louisville.
The Bruins dominated the boards to score numerous baskets on putbacks and dunks in turning back Louisville 91-73 and winning their 11th straight game before a record 19,872 fans in Freedom Hall on Sunday at Louisville.UCLA (23-2) held a commanding 40-22 advantage in rebounds behind Toby Bailey's 11, and scored 25 second-chance points.
"Our coaches said we needed to control the boards in order to win," said forward Ed O'Bannon, who led UCLA with 25 points and five rebounds. "We had to do it."
Louisville coach Denny Crum knew rebounding would be the deciding factor in the contest with his alma mater.
"When we did our game preparation, we said our biggest problem would be rebounding," he said. "That was the difference in the ball game. They're a great rebounding team."
UCLA outscored Louisville 18-4 in the final 2:29 to turn back the upset bid and defeat the Cardinals for the fifth straight time.
"We're improving with our poise down the stretch," O'Bannon said. "All we wanted to do was improve today. We had a few mental breakdowns but we held on."
Louisville (16-13) rallied from 53-36 with 15:41 to go to 73-69 on Jason Osborne's 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:52 to go.
But Louisville turned the ball over on its next three possessions, and UCLA answered with Charles O'Bannon's rebound basket and two free throws each by George Zidek and Tyus Edney to open an 81-69 advantage with 1:28 remaining in the game.
"We made some mistakes, and they took advantage of every one of them," Crum said. "That's what good teams do. They did the right things at the end. Good teams do what they did at the end."
UCLA made its last 14 free throws, and 22 of 26 for the game.
"They are the No. 1 team," Osborne said. "When we got it close, they made all the big plays."
Edney finished with 20 points, Bailey 17 and Charles O'Bannon added 16 for UCLA, which shot 58 percent (33-for-57) from the field.
DeJuan Wheat scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half to pace Louisville while Samaki Walker had 14, Osborne 11 and Eric Johnson 10. The Cardinals hit 46 percent (30-for-66) of their shots.
UCLA, hitting nine of its first 13 shots, moved out to a 22-9 lead on Charles O'Bannon's dunk as Louisville missed 13 of 17 shots in the first 10 minutes.
But UCLA couldn't pull away because Louisville's pressure defense forced the Bruins into 12 turnovers in closing the gap to 41-31 at the half.
Florida 69, Vanderbilt 58
At Nashville, Tenn., Greg Williams hit a bucket with 2:19 left that put Florida ahead to stay as the Gators broke a three-game losing streak with a 69-58 victory over Vanderbilt.
The Gators (15-11, 8-8 Southeastern Conference) trailed most of the game before taking its first lead on a Dametri Hill hook with 16:38 left. The teams swapped the lead back and forth before Williams' basket.
Vanderbilt (12-14, 6-10) enters the SEC tournament on a four-game losing skid with the loss and will play LSU in the first game Thursday. The Gators finished third in the SEC Eastern Division and will play Mississippi Thursday.
Dan Cross, the Gators' leading scorer and third in the SEC, struggled with only four points all in the first half. Andrew DeClercq led Florida with 24 points followed by 18 from Hill. Williams finished with 11.
The Commodores struggled from the floor with 37 percent while the Gators shot 54 percent. Frank Seckar scored 14 points for Vanderbilt while Ronnie McMahan and Drew Maddux had 12 apiece.
Kansas 78, Oklahoma State 62
Jacque Vaughn and Billy Thomas led No. 3 Kansas to its 42nd Big Eight Conference championship Sunday with a second-half charge that carried the Jayhawks to a 78-62 victory over No. 18 Oklahoma State in Kansas.
The Cowboys' star center Bryant Reeves went scoreless for the first time in his career.
In only the second title-deciding regular season finale the Big Eight has seen in 50 years, Kansas overcame a brilliant 45-point performance by Randy Rutherford, who set the Big Eight career record for 3-pointers.
It's the fourth conference title in five years for Kansas.
The 7-foot Reeves, who had 33 points and 20 rebounds in Oklahoma State's 79-69 victory over Kansas last month, suffered one of the most miserable games of an outstanding career. Reeves is one of only five Big Eight players with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Hounded by 7-foot-2-inch Greg Ostertag, the Big Eight career leader in blocked shots, Reeves finished with no points, four fouls and six turnovers.
Virginia 92, Maryland 67
At Charlottesville, Va., Virginia tied up the Atlantic Coast Conference like it never has been.
The 13th-ranked Cavaliers beat No. 6 Maryland 92-67 and the ACC finished in a four-way tie for first place for the first time in its 41-year history.
Wake Forest, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia all finished the regular season with 12-4 records and that's the way they will be seeded by tiebreakers when the conference tournament gets under way this week in Greensboro, N.C.
Virginia (21-7) won for the ninth time in 10 games as Junior Burrough scored 24 points, Harold Deane added 19 points and 14 assists and freshman Curtis Staples had 18 points, all on 3-pointers. Deane's 14 assists tied the school record.
Maryland (22-6) was never able to get untracked offensively in having a four-game winning streak snapped. Joe Smith led the Terrapins with 25 points, but Virginia's physical defense shut down everyone else and the game wasn't close over the entire second half.
The Cavaliers led 42-33 at halftime and they had the lead to 56-37 with 16:18 to play on consecutive 3-pointers by Staples.
Maryland closed within 64-52 with 10:54 left, but another 3-pointer by Staples capped a 10-2 run that made it 74-54 with 7:37 left. The Terrapins were never closer than 16 the rest of the way.
Staples' 3-point showing wasn't unusual considering he came into the game shooting 45 percent from behind the arc this season and all but 18 of his 95 field goals had come from that distance.
Temple 84, West Virginia 72
At Philadelphia, Jason Miller and Levan Alston scored 20 points apiece as Temple overpowered West Virginia 84-72 for their highest point total of the season, in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Temple (18-9) used second half runs of 16-2 and then 9-4 to put the game out of West Virgina's reach with just over five minutes to play.
West Virginia's Seldon Jefferson hit four treys in the final five minutes, but the Mountaineers were unable to cut Temple's lead any more than 78-70 with 42.7 seconds to play.
Miller ended the 9-4 run with a pair of free throws to give Temple a 63-47 lead with 5:09 to play.
The 16-2 run was capped by a driving layup by Jason Ivey with 9:28 to play and it raised the Owls' lead to 54-37.
Iowa State 79, Nebraska 77
At Lincoln, Neb., Julius Michalik hit a 14-foot baseline shot with 4 seconds left, lifting No. 24 Iowa State past Nebraska 79-77 in the Big Eight Conference regular-season finale for both teams.
Iowa State (20-9, 6-8) trailed 42-35 at halftime after Nebraska forward Melvin Brooks hit two 3-pointers in the final minute of the first half to give the Cornhuskers (17-12, 4-10) their biggest lead of the game.
St. John's 86, Georgetown 77
At New York, with Felipe Lopez of St. John's and Allen Iverson of Georgetown on the court, the focus was supposed to be on freshmen. It was, and it wasn't.
The focus wasn't on Lopez or Iverson, but it was on a freshman - Zendon Hamilton. The freshman center scored 21 points, 14 in the second half, as St. John's rallied for an 86-77 victory over Georgetown in the final Big East conference game of the season Sunday.