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Love, UCLA aim for third straight Final Four

Mar 29, 2008 - 1:38 PM No. 3 Xavier (30-6) vs. No. 1 UCLA (34-3) 6:40 pm EDT

PHOENIX (Ticker) - UCLA is one win away from another Final Four appearance.

The top-seeded Bruins look for their third straight trip to the national semifinals when they face third-seeded Xavier in the West Regional final Saturday.

UCLA (34-3) is hoping to become the first team to reach three consecutive Final Fours since Michigan State achieved the feat from 1999-2001. On the other hand, the Musketeers have never been one of the last four teams.

The Bruins cruised in their first-round win, but rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to post a 51-49 victory over Texas A&M in the second round last Saturday.

On Thursday, UCLA held a 21-point halftime lead over Western Kentucky in the "Sweet 16", but saw its lead dwindle down to four with seven minutes to play. But the Bruins did hold on, making 11-of-12 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

"This is very typical of us, we like to make things exciting and make me lose hair," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "It would have been a lot (more fun) to actually have played as well as we did in the first half, in the second half.

Freshman Kevin Love scored a career-high 29 points and had 14 rebounds and James Keefe had career highs with 18 and 12 off the bench to lead the Bruins. Love is averaging 22.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.0 blocks during the tournament.

The Musketeers (30-6) have also played in some exciting contests, advancing to just their second "Elite Eight" contest in school history.

Xavier rallied from double-digit deficits in each of the first two rounds and then posted a 79-75 overtime victory over West Virginia in the regional semifinals on Thursday. The Musketeers had led by as many as 18 in the first half.

"We needed a couple of fortunate bounces to come our way," Musketeers coach Sean Miller said. "We won the game and West Virginia lost but you need a little luck when it is so tight and you have so much at stake. We found a way to win a fantastic game."

Josh Duncan scored a career-high 26 points and B.J. Raymond made two late 3-pointers to key the win for the Musketeers, who made 11-of-19 3-pointers. Duncan is averaging 20.7 points in the tournament.