Solomon Hill was too quick for UCLA's big men. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE
It’s the best possible scenario for Arizona. The Wildcats not only beat UCLA in the quarterfinals, winning 66-58, but top-seeded Washington isn’t waiting in the semifinals.
The Huskies were upset by ninth-seeded Oregon State earlier Thursday and will be playing its third game in three days Friday night at 7 p.m. Tucson time.
Arizona’s “big men” were too quick for the Bruins’ post players. Solomon Hill had 25 points and 12 rebounds. Jesse Perry had 16 points and 12 rebounds, making 12 of 13 free throws. Hill was 12 of 14 from the line.
He said in a postgame interview with Fox Sports Net that “staying active” was the key.
“Make those guys play us,” he said. “We were really aggressive and the refs rewarded us.”
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David Wear misses a 3-pointer … and the Wildcats are going to win this one.
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Solomon Hill at the line with 28.7 seconds left. He makes both. Huge.
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Not over. Arizona has fouled UCLA twice in the final minute, and the Bruins have closed to 62-58 with 34.2 seconds left.
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Nick Johnson soars for his fourth blocked shot. He hasn’t done much offensively, but he’ll still be in the highlights.
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Travis Wear fouls out with 2:52 left. He had 10 points today. Jesse Perry makes two free throws for a 61-53 lead. He’s 11 of 11 from the line.
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Final media timeout. Arizona up 58-53 with 3:50 left. UCLA hasn’t done much from 3-point range today; the Cats need to clog the middle, make their free throws (23 of 26 today) … and close out the final few minutes.
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With 4:43 to go, the Wear twins each have four fouls and Arizona is on a 7-0 run, up 58-51.
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Tied at 51 with 6:02 to go. It’s time for Brendon Lavender to make something. He’s 0 of 4 from 3-point range.
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UCLA takes the lead with 8:15 to play, 46-45, on a fast-break layup by Tyler Lamb. Arizona still not taking care of the ball as it should. If only the Cats had a ball-handler and floor leader who wasn’t at home in Tucson on suspension.
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Four turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the second half for the Wildcats — not what Sean Miller is looking for — and the coach calls a timeout after a 6-0 UCLA run cuts the lead to 43-42 with 9:38 to go.
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Officials calling this game tightly in the second half; could turn into a battle of attrition and free throws. Arizona leads 41-36 with 11:03 to go … and has just fouled out UCLA center Joshua Smith. He only got in about 10 minutes today, unable to guard the Cats’ quickness.
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Tweets Scott Terrell of TucsonCitizen.com: “Nick Johnson has been invisible lately but he can still fly. Does that make him Wonder Woman’s plane?”
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The pace hasn’t picked up, but the scoring has, and Arizona has a 38-31 lead with 15:49 to play. Solomon Hill, Kyle Fogg and Jesse Perry have combined for 34 of UA’s points.
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Kyle Fogg picks up his third foul with 17:23 to go. Hard to take him out. He’ll have to be smart.
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Arizona leads 29-23 at halftime on the strength of 14 points from Solomon Hill, who has three 3-pointers, a dunk off an offensive rebound and a spinning jumper in the lane.
Coach Sean Miller, in his halftime TV interview, expressed concern over his team’s 10 turnovers. UCLA has 10, too.
“The one thing it will come down to in the second half is turnovers,” Miller said. “If we turn the ball over this much in the second half, we’ll be in trouble.”
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For much of the first half, it seemed as if Arizona should have had a bigger lead than it did, and now a 10-2 UCLA run has brought the Bruins nearly back to square one, trailing 23-21 with 1:59 to go with Solomon Hill going to the line.
He makes 1 of 2.
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Angelo Chol gets into the game with 4:35 to go in the half as he gets a turn at trying to defend Joshua Smith.
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UCLA guard Lazeric Jones is down with 5:59 to play in the half after getting a face-full of Brendon Lavender’s arm on a drive to the hoop. UA leads 21-12, as Jones heads to bench with a nose injury. Kyle Fogg, as he did a couple of weeks ago in Tucson, has absolutely shut down Jones so far.
Jones is 2 of 20 in the past three halves of hoops vs. Arizona.
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With 8:32 to play in the half, UCLA has more turnovers (nine) than points (seven).
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Arizona’s on-ball pressure has been fantastic so far, and the perimeter guys are keeping all the Bruins in front of them. I have no idea why this defense was missing against ASU last Sunday.
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This isn’t the defense that Arizona brought to Tempe last Sunday. The Cats have forced eight UCLA turnovers by the second media timeout, and they lead 9-6 with 11:46 to play in the half.
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Interesting. Kyryl Natyazhko comes into the game after the timeout as he will match up with beefy center Joshua Smith. After being a non-factor for several weeks (OK, all season, really), Natyazhko could be an important guy today.
Natyazhko makes a jumper from the free throw line and draws an offensive foul from Smith in his first few minutes in the game.
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Solomon Hill’s two 3-pointers fuel Arizona to a 7-4 lead at the first media timeout with 14:15 to go in the half. Hill has been superb behind the arc in the past two months, hitting 21 of his past 40 attempts. Since he often will be guarded by a 6-10 Wear twin, it’s important for Hill to be a threat and take a big guy away from the hoop.
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With his start against UCLA, senior Kyle Fogg tied Jason Gardner with the most games played in school history (136).
Unless he gets hurt, Fogg will set the games-played record because the Wildcats will be playing another game somewhere, no matter what happens vs. the Bruins today.
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Well, I was wrong. Jordin Mayes is starting at point guard. Brendon Lavender will come off the bench.
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The path to the title game of the Pac-12 tournament widened for Arizona, as top-seeded Washington was upset by Oregon State 85-84 in the quarterfinals.
The Beavers were up by 15 at halftime, fell behind by eight, then rallied to win in the final seconds. Washington’s Tony Wroten missed four consecutive free throws in the final minute.
Arizona didn’t want to see the Huskies in the tournament after Washington swept the season series. Washington’s length and athleticism is a very tough matchup for the Cats … and one they don’t have to worry about if they happen to beat UCLA.
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Arizona’s season hangs in the balance as the Wildcats take on UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament, with starting freshman point guard Josiah Turner.
Will the Cats move on to the semifinals to face the Oregon State-Washington winner … or will we be attending a home NIT game next week?
As for point guard, coach Sean Miller has limited options in a rotation that now goes about six-and-a-half deep. At least he has that “half” as backup point guard Jordin Mayes is healthy enough to play after recovering from a stress reaction in his left foot that kept him out for most of the past five weeks.
Last week, Miller said Mayes wasn’t likely to jump back into his regular minutes — about 17 per game — but the sophomore mighty have to play that much today with Turner suspended. Mayes played six scoreless minutes Sunday at Arizona State.
Freshman Nick Johnson likely will move over from shooting guard to start at point guard, with senior Brandon Lavender joining Kyle Fogg in the three-guard lineup.
That would leave Mayes and center Angelo Chol as the backups … unless Miller wants to grit his teeth, dig deeper into his bench and use post players Kyryl Natyazhko and Alex Jacobson against UCLA’s big front line.
Doing so, means Solomon Hill can slide from power forward to a perimeter spot and use up some minutes in that depth-challenged backcourt.
We’ll see.
In any case, the Bruins are a tough matchup because of that size, including mammoth center Joshua Smith and the 6-10 Wear twins — David and Travis.
“Obviously, they’re a little quicker, but we have a size advantage, and that helps us on the offensive glass and rebounding and things like that,” David Wear said of Arizona after the Bruins beat USC on Wednesday night. “But it’s always a battle when we play those guys.”
The Wear twins have combined to make 21 of 31 shots in two games vs. Arizona this season.