INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —  At halftime Saturday night, UCLA coach Mick Cronin challenged his team to keep it close 10 more minutes and that they should then crank up the pressure on unbeaten Gonzaga.

The flawless combination created a masterpiece of a college basketball game. It just didn't lead to a win for the upstart Bruins.

After UCLA star Johnny Juzang's putback with 3.3 seconds to go in overtime tied things up at 90, Jalen Suggs answered with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send the unbeaten Bulldogs into their second national championship game and the Bruins home to think about how close they came to adding another memorable chapter to school history.

UCLA (22-10) played this one in a decidedly different way than they had through their incredible tourney run that started in the First Four.

The Bruins often traded baskets with Gonzaga (31-0), one of the nation’s most prolific scoring teams, and didn’t allow the Zags to go on one of their trademark runs. The Bruins kept things slow, deliberate and tense.

It was almost enough.

Juzang finished with 29 points to lead the Bruins, trying to become the first No. 11 seed to reach the championship game.

UCLA did something nobody else could this season by forcing the high-scoring Zags into overtime. It just couldn't finish the job to continue an incredible NCAA postseason run in which they had already beaten Michigan State and Alabama in overtime, ran away from BYU and Abilene Christian, and then held off top-seeded Michigan to join VCU as the only teams to go from the First Four to the Final Four.

The Bruins were fighting for school pride, too.

Only seven Division I teams and four schools have been undefeated national champs. Only UCLA has done it more than once, celebrating perfect seasons in 1963-64, 1966-67, 1971-72 and 1972-73. The last team to accomplish the feat was the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers.

Since then, two teams had reached a Final Four in Indianapolis and lost — UNLV to Duke in 1991, Kentucky to Wisconsin in 2015. Gonzaga is the third and the Zags, too, were in a dogfight.

UCLA kept it close even when it looked like things might get away. They fought back from a 64-57 deficit midway through the second half. They had a chance to win it in regulation but Johnny Juzang was called for a charge.

In overtime, Gonzaga pulled out to an 87=83 lead but when they couldn’t put it away, the Bruins capitalized. Cody Riley hit a 15-footer. The Zags answered with a 3-pointer from Andrew Nembhard to make it 90-85 with 1:15 to go and yet the Bruins rallied to tie it again at 90 — only to see Suggs come up with a magical shot to advance for a showdown with Baylor on Monday night.