Everything was just a bit off-kilter for Jesse Perry and Arizona against USC.
Photo by Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE
The eight-game winning streak is over. Derrick Williams has a rare substandard shooting night, and the rest of the Wildcats can’t pick up the slack. USC wins 65-57, pulling away with late free throws.
Arizona falls to 23-5 overall and 12-3 in the Pac-10.
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Shots just haven’t fallen. Kevin Parrom drives to the hoop but can’t hit the layup. Arizona corrals the rebound, but Derrick Williams misses a 3-pointer.
After a foul, USC makes two free throws with a 63-57 lead with 10.3 seconds left.
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Kyle Fogg hits 1 of 2 free throws with 40.7 seconds left. Arizona just 3 of 6 from the line in the past three minutes. USC up 60-57.
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USC swats MoMo Jones on back-to-back possessions, and the Trojans take a 60-56 lead with 58.2 seconds left.
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Nikola Vucevic has been a handful in the lane, and his two free throws ties the game at 56 with 2:37 to play. He has four fouls. Derrick Williams has three.
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Here we go. Under 4 minutes to play. Arizona is up 54-50. Jesse Perry has a team-high 11 points for the Wildcats. Didn’t see that one coming.
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Buckle up for a close finish. I won’t say “thrilling” because this game has been far from it. But, really, it’s mostly what you should have expected — low-scoring and tight. Remember, oddsmakers had USC as a one-point favorite. Arizona leads 46-44 with 7:30 to go.
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MoMo Jones morphing into “scoring point guard” mode.
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Derrick Williams has four points with just more than 10 minutes to play. He hasn’t finished in single-digit points all season.
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Arizona’s offense has picked up. MoMo Jones pushes the Wildcats ahead 42-40 with a 3-pointer with 10:51 to play. Jones and Kevin Parrom picking up some scoring slack with D-Will having a tough night.
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Arizona has been getting some good rolls and bounces through its eight-game winning streak. Anybody else getting a vibe that things just won’t break right for the Cats tonight? It’s going to be a matter of toughness again as the game is tied at 34 with 13:13 to go.
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Jamelle Horne ends a 7-0 USC run to start the second half by hitting a 3-pointer with 15:56 left. That brings Arizona within 32-31. This is a rare game in which Derrick Williams isn’t leading the way for the Wildcats and the team’s depth of 3-point shooters hasn’t yet been a positive factor.
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USC takes a 30-28 lead with 18:22 to go. Another UA conference game that goes down to the wire? Yeah, probably.
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Derrick Williams has missed both of his 3-point attempts. That drops his season percentage from 67.5 to 64.3.
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A 6-0 run for USC near the end of the first half helps the Trojans close to 28-25 at halftime.
Sean Miller at the halftime interview with Corey Williams: “We have to get some guys playing well … We’re not playing very well.”
He added: “We can’t fall in love with jump shots. Part of what we have to do is attack the basket. That’s not easy to do against USC because they’re very good defensively.”
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Derrick Williams can’t throw down a little alley-oop pass from MoMo Jones, as the dunk attempt goes down and back out. His hand seems to be bothering him more, not less, in this game.
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Arizona only 3 of 12 from 3 point range, but Kevin Parrom has two of those made baskets, helping the Wildcats lead 26-19 with 2:45 to go in the half.
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Is there anything Derrick Williams can’t do? Well, I guess he can’t dribble the length of the court with a bandaged right hand.
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This game is right out of the Kevin O’Neill playbook: ugly. Arizona leads 16-11 with 7:38 to go. First one to 50 points wins?
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MoMo Jones hits Arizona’s first 3-pointer with 9:03 to go in the half. That gives the Cats a 15-11 lead, it’s largest so far. Can Arizona pull away from an offensively-challenged Kevin O’Neill team (shocking, I know).
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What would Jamelle Horne did with a Kevin O’Neill bobblehead? He would just leave it on the bench.
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C-c-c-cold in the Galen Center. Game tied at 10 with 11:50 to go in the half, and USC guard Jio Fontan going to the line to shoot a free throw. No points for Derrick Williams yet. He’ll still probably end up with 22.
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Here’s my theory: Dave Sitton really knows now to pronounce Kyryl Natyakhko, but he says it different ways each time just to mess with us.
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Jamelle Horne shoots an air-ball from 3-point range. Probably no pointing at Kevin O’Neill in this game.
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Game tied at 4 at the first media timeout. Jesse Perry has all four of Arizona’s points, including a baseline drive that he ended with a reverse layup. Nifty move for a guy who sometimes gets labeled as just a grinder on the boards.
Meanwhile, a 3-point shot from Derrick Williams early in the possession is not what the Cats are looking for.
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Jesse Perry with early good work on the boards and the follow-up basket. We’ve seen this story before.
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Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News also at the game. Twitter: @tsnmike
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Gary Parrish, the national college basketball writer from CBSSports.com, is reporting on tonight’s game from the Galen Center. You can follow him on Twitter at @GaryParrishCBS
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Arizona plays at USC tonight, and don’t you wish you were for a chance to get a Kevin O’Neill bobblehead, being given away at the Galen Center.
The Trojans have been playing well, coming off a road sweep of the Bay Area schools, and big men Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson are definitely a formidable pair down low (and in Vucevic’s case, from beyond the 3-point line).
Arizona (23-4 overall and 12-2 in the Pac-10) enters with a two-game lead in the conference race with four games to go. After the L.A. trip, the Wildcats return home for a two-game homestand against the Oregon schools.
While things look good for 10th-ranked Arizona, the Vegas oddsmakers have made USC a one-point favorite in this game. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if the Cats came earn a split on this trip.
“Part of these next four games is it’s never as easy as you think it is,” said Arizona coach Sean Miller.
“It seems like, ‘Wow, you guys are in great shape.’ It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we’re playing in the our last conference game against Oregon where it could go either way. … These next two weeks will be as hard or harder than any.”
This will be the spot for our in-game updates, commentary and general nonsense. Contribute as you deem necessary in the comments section …
Other reading from the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network:
Steve Rivera: Revisiting previous Arizona-USC thrillers
Javier Morales: Arizona-USC matchup breakdown … and prediction
Victor Rodriguez: Arizona basketball returning to national prominence (with excerpts of an interview with CBS Sports’ Clark Kellogg on the “Victor and Matt Sports Podcast”).
Mom’s advice to Derrick Williams: ‘Just be true to you’
Arizona basketball notes: Parrom, Player of the Year, Pauley … and more