UPDATE on the fight: Arizona backup center Kyryl Natyazhko and Oregon State power forward Joe Burton were ejected with 1:15 to go in overtime for leaving the bench during a skirmish under the UA basket. League officials will review the tape Friday morning to judge if suspensions are warranted, athletic director Greg Byrne said.
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The Wildcats win 81-73. A wild one. Be back with more later.
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Looks like Arizona is going to win what turned into a crazy game. After an Oregon State turnover, Josiah Turner gave Arizona an 80-73 lead with a free throw.
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Kyle Fogg received a technical foul, his fifth foul of the game, after officials sorted out the skirmish with 1:15 left in overtime. He was set to go the line to shoot one free throw after being fouled while making a layup before the fight, but he had to leave the game. Brendon Lavender shot the free throw … and missed.
Kyryl Natyazhko was tossed from the game.
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A fight at McKale Center with 1:15 left in overtime after Kyle Fogg is fouled while making a fast-break layup. Some UA players — notably Kyryl Natyazhko — come off the bench as the melee occurred under the UA basket.
Officials watching replays to sort it all out with a delay of nearly 10 minutes.
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Credit to the AP’s John Marshall on this: Ahmad Starks scored 10 points in final 3:16 of regulation.
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Final flurry: Jesse Perry makes 1 of 2 free throws with 43.5 seconds left to tie the game at 70. Ahmad Starks comes down and hits a fallaway jumper over Jordin Mayes, and then Kyle Fogg drives to the hoop to re-tie the game with 14 seconds to go.
Starks had a shot to win,. but his 3-pointer in the final seconds rattled out.
Overtime.
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Starks’ strikes again, this time with a 3-pointer to give Oregon State a 70-69 lead. Arizona coach Sean Miller calls timeout with 56 seconds left.
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Ahmad Starks’ driving layup with 1:53 left ties the game at 67. Kyle Fogg put UA back on top with two free throws with 1:29 left.
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Final media timeout: Arizona leads 67-65 with 2:46 left. Oregon State’s possession.
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Just like practice. B-Lav strikes from 3 again — giving five 3-pointers this half. But Oregon State’s Ahmad Starks counters with three points of his own to make it 67-65 Arizona.
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Getting down to the last segment of the game: Arizona leads 62-60 with 4:36 to play. Solomon Hill and Kyle Fogg have four fouls. Cats surviving with 3-point shooting — 11 of 21.
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Well, if Oregon State is going to let Brendon Lavender shoot 3-point shots, then he will take them. Lavender drains two more long balls — giving him four this half — giving Arizona a 58-54 lead with 7:06 to go.
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By the way, Brendon Lavender has hit 20 of 35 3-pointers this season.
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Solomon Hill picks up his fourth foul with 10:56 to go. In comes Kevin Parrom.
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A long 3-pointer from Brendon Lavender and two free throws from Jordin Mayes ties the game at 44 with 12:19 to go. This one is getting good, and McKale is as loud as it has been this season.
While I was typing, Lavender hits another 3 for a 47-44 lead.
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Arizona had a chance to tie the game at 41, but Jordin Mayes picks up on offensive foul on the fast break after bouncing a pass to Jesse Perry from the lane. The McKale Center crowd is on its feet and angry … and perhaps a bit nervous.
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The Wildcats are having a hard time containing Oregon State guard Jared Cunningham, despite doing a good job of keeping him out of the lane, where he is so dangerous. So, if the plan was to make him shoot jumpers, it is working.
The problem is that Cunningham is hot from the outside, hitting a career-high four 3-point shots en route to 16 points only three minutes into the half.
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The scoring pace picked up right at the start of the second half, turning the game into more of what was expected. The teams combined for 15 points in the first 2:30 of the half, with Oregon State holding on to a 35-34 lead.
Jesse Perry, with three fouls, got a bucket inside for the Cats, Kyle Fogg hit a 3-pointer and Nick Johnson converted a 3-point play.
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Oregon State surges late in the half for a 28-26 halftime lead. Nick Johnson helps UA’s momentum with a 3-point with eight seconds left, snapping a streak of seven misses from behind the arc.
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Late in the half, Solomon Hill is basically playing the center spot in a really small lineup.
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Teams now a combined 14 of 50 from the field, and this game isn’t quite as entertaining as I thought it might be. The Wildcats have missed their last seven 3-point attempts.
Still, 21-20 Arizona with 2:36 to go before halftime.
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Nobody draws applause for a rebound more than Kyryl Natyazhko.
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Not much falling for Arizona, which has made 7 of 21 shots from the field and a lousy 3 of 8 from the free throw line. Oregon State has never led but creeps within 21-20 with 4:04 left in the half.
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Tweets TucsonCitizen.com’s Scott Terrell: “Fogg has missed more chip shot field goals than Stanford’s kicker.”
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Jesse Perry picks up his third foul with 5:13 to go. Not what Arizona needed against the big Oregon State front line.
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If it the defense? Arizona and Oregon State have combined to make 10 of 37 shots with 7:56 left in the half. UA’s saving grace is that it has made four 3-pointers as it leads 16-13.
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Kyryl Natyazhko, who has played only nine minutes in the past three games, came in for Perry at the timeout with 15:14 left. Usually, it’s been Angelo Chol as the first big man off the bench, but the Cats are going to need both for the rest of the half.
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Oregon State’s Jared Cunningham throws down his first dunk with 14:26 to go. He gets the fast-break slam after 6-10 Eric Moreland jumped out to swat Kyle Fogg’s 3-point attempt.
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Jesse Perry picks up his second foul with 15:14 to go in the first half, which should lead to a healthy dose of Angelo Chol and Kyryl Natyazhko before halftime. Up-and-down game so far — to be expected — but shots aren’t falling early as the Cats lead 8-3.
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The Wildcats will face a big challenge against Oregon State, which started 6-10 center Angus Brandt, 280-pound power forward Joe Burton and 6-10 small forward Eric Moreland.
The biggest player in Arizona’s three-guard starting lineup is Jesse Perry, who is 6-7 and 217 pounds.
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Classes started Wednesday, so the Zona Zoo student section is back. The students have come equipped tonight with the large cardboard cutout heads of players and coaches that have become popular in arenas around the country. The Zoo started displaying the cutout heads last season.
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Coach Sean Miller made a taped appearance on the McKale Center videoboard before the game to promote the “White Out” against Washington on Jan. 28. ESPN GameDay will telecast from McKale that morning, and Miller called it a “full day of exposure” for the program. The game against the Huskies will begin at 5 p.m. that day.
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Should be an exciting game tonight, unlike Arizona’s game Sunday at USC, which was nearly unwatchable in the second half. It’s also a scary matchup than usual for the Cats, who have lost to the Beavers in McKale Center only once since the 1982-83 season — although that one defeat came just two seasons ago.
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We’re at McKale Center for Arizona’s game tonight against Oregon State, and coach Sean Miller says one of the keys to the Pac-12 season is running the table at home.
That will also be key to making the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats are 11-5 and can’t afford to give away a game it should win — and they are favored by about five points tonight. For as early as it is, Arizona has a marginal at-large NCAA Tournament resume and sits on wrong side of the NCAA bubble, according to ESPN.com’s projections earlier this week.
“Probably deservedly so,” Miller said.
“There is a lot of basketball left to be played,” he added. “If you look back just one year ago to the day, could you honestly say we were an automatic to be in the postseason? No. And there were a lot of teams a year ago who seemed like a shoo-in but didn’t finish.
“We have 15 conference games and our conference tournament left. We are supposed to do what we’re supposed to do — improve, practice the right way, win our home games … all the things that postseason teams do. If we do that, I’m pretty sure we’ll be right there.”
Some other reading:
Here are my three keys to the game. And Scott Terrell looks at This Week in the Pac-12.
Check back during the game for updates and whatever else strikes me; have your say in the comments section …