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 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 against second-seeded Stanford (26-6), a 75-68 winner over third-seeded Washington State.

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 one of two 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.”

Mayo’s clock-gobbling dribbling surprised Shipp.

“If he missed, you don’t have any time to get another shot off,” he said.

Howland added, “Josh did a smart thing not to foul him.”

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.

X-rays were negative and Mbah a Moute was on crutches, not a welcome sight for the junior who backs up Love on the boards. He had three points and one rebound in his short stint.

Howland said Mbah a Moute won’t play today. He re-injured the same ankle that sidelined him last month.

No. 11 Stanford 75, No. 21 Washington St. 68

Brook Lopez and the Stanford Cardinal were simply too big and too strong for Washington State.

Lopez had 30 points and 12 rebounds, and the 11th-ranked Cardinal beat No. 21 Washington State 75-68 Friday night in the semifinals of the Pac-10 Conference to continue their domination of the Cougars.

Lawrence Hill scored 14 points and Robin Lopez had nine points and eight rebounds for the second-seeded Cardinal (26-6), who advanced to today’s championship game against UCLA.

Kyle Weaver had a career-high 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead the third-seeded Cougars (24-8). Derrick Low added 15 points, Daven Harmeling scored 13, and Taylor Rochestie had 11 points and five assists for Washington State.

Patriot League

American 52, Colgate 46

WASHINGTON — Garrison Carr scored 17 points and American earned its first trip to the NCAA tournament since the school joined Division I in 1967.

Brian Gilmore scored 11 and wrestled away a key steal in the final 20 seconds for the top-seeded Eagles (21-11), whose only previous berth in an NCAA tournament came as a Division II school in 1960.

American had fallen at the final huddle three times since joining the Patriot League in 2001, losing the 2002 championship game at home and the 2003 and 2004 title games on the road. For coach Jeff Jones, the victory achieved the goal envisioned when the former Virginia coach was hired eight years ago by the school located in the affluent northwest corner of the nation’s capital.

Kyle Roemer scored 17 points for the third-seeded Raiders (18-14).

Atlantic 10

Saint Joseph’s 61, No. 10 Xavier 53

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Pat Calathes scored 24 points and Saint Joseph’s held No. 10 Xavier to a season-low point total in the Atlantic 10 semifinals.

Despite the loss, the top-seeded Musketeers (27-6) are all but guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament when the selections are announced on Sunday.

Fifth-seeded Saint Joseph’s (21-11) can lock up its first NCAA tournament berth since 2003-04 tonight in the championship game against Temple.

Ahmad Nivins added 15 points for the Hawks, whose tough man-to-man defense limited Xavier to 37 percent shooting from the field, including only one basket outside the paint.

Southeastern Conference

Storm damages dome during quarterfinals

ATLANTA — A possible tornado ripped into the Georgia Dome during the Southeastern Conference tournament, sending debris tumbling from the ceiling, prompting fans to flee for the exits and postponing the final game Friday night.

The storm struck while Alabama and Mississippi State were in overtime in their quarterfinal matchup. They were able to finish after a delay of more than an hour — Mississippi State won 69-67 — but the last game between Georgia and Kentucky was called off because of concerns that more strong storm cells were closing in on the city.

“I thought it was a tornado or a terrorist attack,” said Mississippi State guard Ben Hansbrough, who was guarding Alabama’s Mykal Riley when rumbling began above their heads.

National Weather Service officials called the storm a possible tornado, and winds were clocked at up to 60 mph as the storm moved through the city.

Said one of Hansbrough’s teammates, Charles Rhodes, “This has got to be one of the worst environments I’ve ever been in as a player. To see stuff falling from the roof, it really scared me. I really didn’t know what to do.”

The SEC was considering the unprecedented scenario of playing three games today, possibly shifting to Georgia Tech’s 9,100-seat Alexander Memorial Coliseum because of damage to the dome. The Georgia-Kentucky winner might have to return later in the day for a semifinal game against Mississippi State.

“That would be a major, major challenge,” Georgia coach Dennis Felton said before taking his team back to its hotel, which wasn’t damaged by the storm.

League officials were still huddling early this morning. There was no immediate word on the revised schedule.

In the earier games, Tennessee’s Chris Lofton hit a 3-pointer with 11.4 seconds remaining and the fourth-ranked Volunteers survived South Carolina’s bid for a huge upset, sending Dave Odom into retirement with an 89-87 victory over the Gamecocks.

The Volunteers play Arkansas in the semifinals after the Razorbacks beat No. 18 Vanderbilt 81-75 behind 18 points each from Darian Townes and Gary Ervin.