Cincinatti ? Maureece Rice and George Washington have made a habit of wearing down their opponents this season.

Rice scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half for the 10th-ranked Colonials, who rallied to beat Xavier, 89-85, Thursday night and remain unbeaten in the Atlantic 10.

“We have such depth that when the other team gets tired around the eight-minute or seven-minute mark, we make our move,” Colonials coach Karl Hobbs said. “We’ve done some tremendous things around that time this year.”

The Colonials (17-1, 7-0), who hadn’t won on the Musketeers’ home court in 10 years, have won nine straight games since being blown out at North Carolina State on Dec. 30.

Xavier built a 10-point halftime lead by shooting 50 percent from the field and playing tough defense.

“We should have closed out the game,” said Stanley Burrell, who had 12 points for Xavier.

“The first half, we were getting out and pushing the ball,” he said. “The second half, they picked us up all the way to half court and took us out of what we wanted to do.”

Xavier center Brian Thornton, center, passes between George Washington defenders Rob Diggs, left, and Montrell McDonald. GW won, 89-85, Thursday in Cincinnati.

George Washington went on a 15-1 run, including three baskets and two free throws by Rice, early in the second half to take its biggest lead at 70-62 with 8:58 to play.

Rice opened the half with a steal and drove the length of the court to get one run started. Even after the second run, the Colonials couldn’t put away Xavier (13-5, 4-3) until Rice hit a three-pointer with 36 seconds left.

Carl Elliott hit four free throws down the stretch to seal the outcome. Elliott finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.

“They have a hungry group of guys,” said Xavier coach Sean Miller, although the Colonials looked anything but hungry in the first half.

“In the second half, that hunger really showed,” Miller said. “They were the quicker team getting to all the loose balls. We didn’t respond well enough to the second-half pressure.”

Brian Thornton finished with 21 points for Xavier, and Justin Doellman had 17.

George Washington led early, at 5-4, but Dedrick Finn hit a jumper at 17:42 and a three-pointer 20 seconds later as the Musketeers put together a 14-1 run that Burrell capped with a jumper at 14:58.

Doellman had 13 of his 17 in the half, and Burrell 11 of his 12, and the Musketeers’ took their biggest lead at 17 points when Doellman made a pair of free throws to make it 38-21 with 7:20 left.

Only a last-second three-pointer by Danilo Pinnock let the Colonials pull within 10 at 53-43 as the half ended.

“The game could have gone either way,” said Hobbs, who earlier this week said he was surprised that the Colonials were ranked No. 10.

No. 14 UCLA 69, Arizona State 60

Los Angeles – Jordan Farmar scored 18 points, and Arron Afflalo added 17 to help UCLA hold off Arizona State and remain alone atop the Pac-10.

The Bruins (18-4, 8-2) didn’t take their first double-digit lead until Afflalo hit a jumper with 2:39 remaining.

UCLA owns a one-game lead over California and Stanford, which both won Thursday, and two games over Arizona, which lost at Southern California.

The Sun Devils (7-12, 1-9) dropped their fourth in a row. Bryson Krueger led them with 14 points, and Antwi Atuahene added 12. Their leading scorer, Kevin Kruger, was held to eight.

Last month, the Bruins escaped with a one-point victory in Tempe on two late baskets by Farmar. This time, he did his damage in the first half.

ASU trailed 50-46 when the Bruins went on a 19-14 run to end the game. Afflalo scored seven in a row, and Cedric Bozeman beat the shot clock buzzer with a three-pointer before repeated trips to the free-throw line.