The sophomore center made a pair of free throws with 11:03 left in the game to finally push the Tigers past the 30-point mark, then on his next trip down missed from close range, got his own rebound and forced one in to set up a three-point play. The whole sequence left him panting as he pounded the ball onto the floor — a mild success on an otherwise frustrating evening.

“One key tonight, and we didn’t see this as well on tape, was their phsyicalness,” Brady said.

Davis fouled out with 2:09 left and clapped his hands as he headed toward the bench, then exchanged hugs with his teammates.

Forward Tasmin Mitchell scored 12 points for the Tigers. Darrel Mitchell was held to eight points, nine below his season average. LSU committed 15 turnovers and UCLA had 10 steals — a bad night for the Tigers no matter how you cut it.

“We knew they were a great defensive team coming into this,” LSU forward Darnell Lazare said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We just couldn’t get our shots to fall to keep it close.”

Farmar made two 3-pointers in the first half to go with his desperation heave in the second and finished with 12 points. Guard Arron Afflalo was another long, tall distraction on defense and had nine points and six boards.

The Bruins were in a bit of foul trouble early, but more than withstood it. Nine players played at least 10 minutes, another reason coach Ben Howland’s team can keep up the defensive pressure.

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UCLA’s gritty style of winning might not look familiar to the faithful who watched John Wooden’s up-tempo teams in the history-making ’60s and ’70s, when the Bruins set the standard for winning — and doing it the right way.

Wooden hardly shirked defense, but the big difference is that UCLA’s current coach insists on it. He made no apologies for turning the Bruins into a hard-nosed, scrappy team that looks more suited for the Big East than the Left Coast.

Howland boasts that players who come to UCLA want to win titles and go to the pros and sees defense as a big part of both. After this Final Four effort, it was hard to argue the point.

“Defense wins championships and our shots fell,” Hollins said. “That’s a very, very good team we just beat tonight.”