updated 7:12 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Mike Gansey put on an offensive show, then made the defensive play of the game.

Gansey capped his 24-point performance by swiping the ball away in the last seven seconds, helping No. 12 West Virginia survive a furious rally to beat No. 18 UCLA 60-56 Saturday for its 12th straight victory.

“This was an ambitious endeavor by us to come all the way out here, but as it turns out now, I’m glad we did,” coach John Beilein said.

The Mountaineers (14-3) led by 20 points early in the second half, but saw their lead shrink to three in the final 2 minutes.

The Bruins (15-4) missed game-tying 3-pointers by Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar. Then, West Virginia had a foul to give when Farmar inbounded the ball. Gansey stripped it away, ensuring the victory.

“He had the ball in front of me and I just got lucky and tipped it and stole it from him,” Gansey said. “I’m feeling pretty happy right now.”

Farmar scored 22 points for UCLA, which outscored the Mountaineers 29-13 over the final 14:43.

“He made a good play,” Farmar said about Gansey. “He has great anticipation. It was clean, no foul.”

Afflalo was held to a season-low four points and his defense on Gansey wasn’t any better. Ryan Hollins and Darren Collison added 11 points each.

Kevin Pittsnogle, whose wife is expecting their first child on Feb. 1, added eight points — well off his 20.6 average. He had six of West Virginia’s first eight points of the second half, extending its lead to 47-27.

“I was open on all the shots I took,” he said. “I just didn’t make my shots like I normally do. Everybody played well except for me. I’ll just make it up next game.”

After being held to a season-low 22 points in the first half, the Bruins rallied.

Revived by Farmar’s scoring, they used a 21-7 run to close within six points with 8:01 remaining. He scored nine points — on a 3-pointer, two free throws, a reverse layup and a driving layup — and Collison added eight points to ignite the crowd.

The Mountaineers went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal until Gansey hit his third 3-pointer of the game to end the drought at 4:48.

“We knew we weren’t going to beat them by 20,” he said. “They’re a tremendous team on their home floor. We were just fortunate to come out with a big lead at halftime.”

Afflalo made his first field goal of the game, Farmar hit two free throws and Hollins scored on Gansey’s goaltending call to get to 59-54 with 4:09 remaining.

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Farmar missed a long jumper, but Hollins dunked to get UCLA to 59-56 with 2:26 left. But the Bruins came up empty on Afflalo’s and Farmar’s 3-point attempts.

West Virginia mixed up its defense, using a 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones and man-to-man to confuse the Bruins, who staggered through a sequence of misses and turnovers.

“They keep you so spaced out,” Afflalo said. “It gives them so much room to work and everyone can shoot from 27-feet out. That’s not common.”

The Bruins started the game with a 9-5 lead, then got outscored 25-7 to trail 30-16. Patrick Beilein and Gansey had eight points each in the spurt.

The Mountaineers kept it up, closing the half on a 9-3 run to lead 39-22. They shot 57 percent from the floor to UCLA’s six field goals — or 26 percent.

West Virginia leads the series 2-1. The Mountaineers won the first meeting in 1959 — led by Jerry West’s 30 points and 16 rebounds. The Hall of Famer and Memphis Grizzlies president was at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.

John Wooden coached the Bruins in that loss, and was at the helm in 1968 when they beat West Virginia behind Lew Alcindor’s 19 points and 10 rebounds. Wooden, 95, sat in his usual spot behind UCLA’s bench Saturday.

There was a moment of silence for the 14 West Virginia miners killed on the job since Jan. 2. The bodies of two miners were found Saturday after a fire had trapped them inside a mine.

“We’ve had a rough time,” Beilein said. “I know we made a lot of people happy with what’s been a very tough January for our state.”

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