updated 12:27 a.m. ET Dec. 23, 2007

LAS VEGAS - After Brigham Young’s defense allowed UCLA to drive 87 yards in the final 2 minutes, Eathyn Manumaleuna saved the Cougars with his fingertip.

Manumaleuna got his right hand on Kai Forbath’s field goal attempt as time expired, giving the No. 19 Cougars a 17-16 win over the Bruins in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday night.

“I don’t know how I jumped. I don’t really have a high vertical,” said Manumaleuna, a 280-pound lineman who led the surge that kept UCLA from completing an amazing comeback.

The Bruins held BYU to a season-low 265 yards of offense and rallied behind their fourth-string quarterback and 124 yards of field goals by Forbath. Forbath had made kicks of 22, 52 and 50 yards to keep the Bruins close, but his 28-yarder at the end wasn’t quite high enough to clear the defensive line.

BYU (11-2) won its 10th straight, getting another magic play at the end. The Cougars converted a fourth-and-18 on their winning drive against rival Utah on Nov. 24. This time it was the defense that came up with the improbable save.

“It was a fitting play that shows the resolve of this team,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said.

UCLA was playing for interim coach DeWayne Walker, the defensive coordinator who took over after Karl Dorrell was fired at the end of the regular season. If it was Walker’s only game as UCLA’s coach, it was a memorable one.

The Bruins’ top two quarterbacks were on the sideline with injuries, but Walker’s defense swarmed the Cougars all game and kept the BYU offense in check more than anyone else had this season.

“No coach was worried about jobs. Players, they didn’t worry about the new head coach,” Walker said. “All we wanted to do was just work and play a respectable game. We wanted to win the game. We fell a little short.”

UCLA forced BYU to punt with about 2 minutes left and started the final drive on its own 2-yard line. Walk-on quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson and running back Chris Markey led the Bruins 87 yards, getting a 36-yard completion from Bethel-Thompson to Logan Paulsen on a third-and-8 play with 30 seconds left.

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Paulsen caught the ball around the 45-yard line, then rumbled to the 13.

The Bruins ran one play, then called timeout with the ball at the 11 and only 3 seconds left. Forbath, who was 3-for-3, kicked it low enough for Manumaleuna to get a piece of it and keep the ball from getting through the uprights, although there was some confusion on who actually got the block.

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In the end, Manumaleuna got the credit, which didn’t matter a bit to the Cougars.

“What I saw was an incredible surge,” Mendenhall said. “We sent all 11, which is a desperation block.”

BYU improved to 2-7 against UCLA, beating the Bruins for the first time since 1983. The Cougars also avenged a 27-17 loss to UCLA in the second week of the season, one of just two losses this year for BYU.

The Bruins were just inches away from salvaging the season with a winning record.

“I don’t think we could have gone out on a better play,” said Hall, who completed 21 of 35 for 231 yards.

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