LOS ANGELES_Kris Wilkes was already hobbled with calf cramps when he rose for the three-point shot that could ease his pain.
The ball had barely sunk through the net when Wilkes limped into the backcourt and slid to the court, the UCLA small forward grimacing in anguish as teammate Jaylen Hands ran to mob him in celebration.
The crowd roared in appreciation, Wilkes' shot with nine-tenths of a second remaining Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion completing a wild comeback from a late five-point deficit and lifting the Bruins to an improbable 65-62 victory over Notre Dame.
Wilkes had gone to the locker room earlier in the second half with cramps and had to be helped off the court by teammates after his winning shot completed UCLA's game-ending 8-0 run.
The sequence was set up by Jalen Hill blocking a shot off the backboard, allowing Prince Ali to grab the rebound and dribble up court before finding Wilkes for the winner in transition.
"That was a great shot," said Wilkes, who got a hug from Hands in mid-answer at the postgame news conference.
Temple Gibbs' halfcourt heave at the buzzer was well off the mark for the Fighting Irish.
It was the sort of finish that made you want the teams to meet again in a week.
That used to happen in the heyday of the UCLA-Notre Dame rivalry, when the teams met twice in a season, but the Fighting Irish will have to wait a year for a rematch in South Bend, Ind.
"Well, that's why we wanted the rivalry back, to have games like that," UCLA coach Steve Alford said.
Notre Dame (6-3) looked as if it was going to complete a comeback of its own from a 14-point deficit early in the second half when the Irish held a 62-57 lead with less than three minutes to play. But Ali made a dunk in transition and stepped to the free-throw line for three shots after having made only one of three earlier in the second half when fouled on a three-point try.
Ali made all three attempts this time, tying the score 62-62 with 2:16 left before the teams traded empty possessions leading up to the wild ending.
Wilkes finished with a team-high 14 points, and Hands had 12 points and 11 assists as the Bruins (7-2) notched their first victory of the season over a major-conference opponent while stretching their winning streak to three games.
Frisky fans from what appeared to be UCLA's biggest home crowd of the season provided a big-game feel.
Students packed most of the sections behind one basket from the court to the rafters. Some students broke out in a spontaneous Frisbee cheer before the game even though the cheer's creator, Larry "Frisbee" Davis, has asked the Bruins to stop.
But there was no holding back with Notre Dame making its first appearance in Westwood in nearly a decade.
Former Bruins great Bill Walton, on hand to call the game for ESPN2, held up an old rumpled sign before the game reading "Digger is a Wimp," a chant UCLA fans once liked to direct at Digger Phelps when he was the Fighting Irish's coach.
UCLA legends Jamaal Wilkes, Sidney Wicks and Marques Johnson were also among the crowd, though they had to endure a first half filled with lots of ugly moments and few points.
Notre Dame airballed three shots and went scoreless for nearly eight minutes to end the half.
UCLA's Cody Riley and Hands missed dunks. Ali and teammate Moses Brown fought over what should have been an easy rebound, knocking the ball out of bounds.
UCLA held a 31-20 halftime lead largely on the strength of an early 13-0 run and a late 11-0 run. The Bruins shot 32.4 percent but led by double digits because the Fighting Irish shot 22.9 percent and made only three of 15 three-point shots (20 percent).
Hands sparked UCLA's comeback from an 8-2 deficit by going into pass-first mode, logging five assists in less than seven minutes. The Bruins were up 15-8 after Hands sent a bounce pass underneath the basket to Hill, who grabbed the ball for a dunk.
The Fighting Irish eventually tied the score 20-20 before UCLA went on its second big run that ended with a Chris Smith floater in the lane.
When Riley preserved the advantage with a block in the final moments before halftime, Alford pumped both of his fists in delight as the players headed for the locker room.
There were bigger celebrations to come.
