It came down to the wire, but Stanford fell short in the title game of the Pac-10 Conference Tournament on Saturday, losing 67-64 to UCLA in a game marked by runs from both teams and a wild final minute where Stanford had a shot to tie at the end.

Darren Collison scored 28 points for the Bruins (31-3), who also won the conference regular season championship. Brook Lopez had 15 points and six rebounds for the Cardinal (26-7), who led by as much as nine but struggled to defend UCLA’s dribble penetration.

It was all Collison down the stretch, who was honored afterwards as Tournament MVP. With the Bruins nursing a four point lead at the five-minute mark and the shot clock running down, the wily point guard penetrated the Stanford zone and got to the hoop for the score to make it 57-51.

After Anthony Goods missed a jumper, Collison made a brilliant entry pass to Kevin Love, who drew a foul and converted the free throws. After a Brook Lopez dropped pass, Love scored on a put-back to give the Bruins a ten-point lead with two minutes to go.

Mitch Johnson scored four straight as Stanford made a run to cut into the UCLA lead, but Collison answered right back with a jumper to put the Bruins up 63-55.

“He’s a good player,” Stanford coach Trent Johnson said of Collison. “We went to a zone, got him leveled a little bit but he made some nice plays. In a game like this, it’s just a possession here and there. I thought we did a good job.”

Mitch Johnson hit a 3-pointer and James Keefe missed both free throws, giving Stanford a chance to tie with 19 seconds left. But the Bruins played tight on the perimeter, and Stanford settled for a Lawrence Hill layup with three seconds remaining.

“We were trying to get penetration,” Trent Johnson explained. “I told the guys, ‘If you have an open drive in rhythym, go ahead.”

Collison hit two free throws, and a Goods 3-pointer to tie missed right as time expired.

“Time was running down, I tried to get as close as I could,” Goods said. “I tried to get the shot off, it was just a little to the right.”

The chances were there all game for the Cardinal. Stanford shot almost 48 percent from the field and converted 5-of-11 3-point attempts (45.5 percent). The Bruins shot only 38 percent from the field, 26.7 percent from 3-point range and made only 9-of-23 free throws.

Rebounding, however, was the difference. The Bruins beat the Cardinal 43-35 on the boards, dominating the offensive glass 21-5 and scoring 13 second-chance points.

“We were going at each other real hard,” said Lopez, who said he enjoyed the physical play down low. “Maybe they wanted it more, so they came up with them.”

Stanford also committed 10 turnovers, leading to 15 UCLA points.

“It was just effort,” said UCLA forward Josh Shipp, who had nine rebounds, second overall to teammate Russell Westbrook’s 11. “We knew we had to crash the boards hard.”

Befitting of a game between two teams that went to overtime in their last match up, the score was tied 32-32 at the midway point. A Lawrence Hill bank shot gave Stanford a nine-point lead - its biggest of the half - at the 11-minute mark. But Stanford’s offense went cold after that, and the Bruins capitalized with a flurry of layups and three-pointers in transition, scoring 10 unanswered while mounting a 15-4 run.

“That just shows the character of our kids,” UCLA head coach Ben Howland said, “the way they fought back.”

The Cardinal countered with a zone defense that temporarily stymied UCLA, answering with a 6-0 run capped by a steal and transition and-one by Fred Washington. Collison, however, scored twice in the final thirty seconds of the half to even the score.

Stanford struck first out of the half, seizing a 43-39 lead following two straight baskets by the Lopez twins.

Collison kicked off an 11-0 UCLA run midway through the second half, deftly dribbling among the big men and finishing inside. He then capped the run with a difficult layup over Brook Lopez to give the Bruins a 50-43 advantage with 8:40 remaining.

Robin Lopez hit two free throws and Goods hit a 3-pointer, but Keefe scored on an offensive rebound and Kevin Love hit a 3-pointer to put the Bruins back up seven with six minutes left.

“We wanted to win this game,” said Love, who had only 12 points and six rebounds, hampered by a back spasms. “I couldn’t get any lift. I just had to tough it out.”

Stanford knew the game wasn’t going to be easy, but coming so close made the ending even harder to swallow.

“It's definitely hard to take,” Goods said, “especially when you work so hard.”