Solomon Hill was chosen MVP of the Diamond Head Classic. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports
Arizona’s Nick Johnson soared from the top of the lane to block a last-second shot from Chase Tapley to preserve a 68-67 victory over San Diego State in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.
After Mark Lyons’ two free throws gave UA the lead with 13.1 seconds left, Tapley got the ball and curled down the left side of the lane with a clear path to the hoop. But Johnson had other ideas and swatted the shot from behind.
The ball bounced away and time ran out as the teams scrambled for possession. Shades of Derrick Williams vs. Washington two seasons ago.
Solomon Hill was selected MVP of the tournament. He scored a game-high 21 points Tuesday night with six rebounds and three assists.
Third-ranked Arizona improved to 12-0 as it finished the non-conference part of its schedule. The Cats have played two notable games — against then-No. 5 Florida and 17th-ranked San Diego State, winning both games by a point.
The Aztecs had won 11 consecutive games against Pac-12 opponents, including a sweep of USC and UCLA earlier this season.
Nick Johnson- wow, what a block! It wasn’t pretty, but the Cats gutted it out.Nice to have bragging rights here in San Diego tomorrow!
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerrTNT) December 26, 2012
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Tweets CBSSports.com college hoops writer Jeff Goodman after the game: “Crazy thing for this AZ team is that it still has so much upside. Have to be able to score in halfcourt offense more effeciently, though.”
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Not surprisingly, Arizona turns to Mark Lyons to make a play down the stretch. Arizona spreads the court for Lyons, who drives from the top and gets fouled with 13.1 seconds left while driving to the hoop. He makes both for a 68-67 lead.
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Jamaal Franklin attacks the basket and draws a foul from Solomon Hill with 31.4 seconds left. He makes one for a 67-66 lead. Arizona calls its final timeout with 27.7 seconds left.
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Solomon Hill shoots two free throws with 59.9 seconds left. He misses the first with the Cats trailing 66-65 but ties the game by making the second.
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Back and forth we go. Kevin Parrom has been huge in the second half, and his 3-pointer with 2:14 to play gives Arizona a 65-64 lead, but Xavier Thames regains the advantage for SDSU with two free throws with 1:22 left. Parrom and Solomon Hill have been great playing together for much of the second half.
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Last TV timeout: SDSU leads 61-60 with 3:56 to go. A tough couple of possessions for Mark Lyons, who misses a long 3-pointer and then travels while trying to spin through the lane.
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Huge call with 5:58 left. Solomon Hill, driving down the middle on a fast break after a steal, draws a blocking call against Jamaal Franklin, his fourth foul. Could definitely have gone the other way.
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Mark Lyons, with four fouls, comes back into the game with 8:02 left … and SDSU’s Jamaal Franklin immediately takes him to the hoop for two points. Can Lyons be effective defensively?
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SDSU point guard Xavier Thames has to leave the game with 8:31 to go after being hit in the face — incidental contact — by Solomon Hill on a drive to the hoop.
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The Wildcats vault back into the lead with Solomon Hill’s two free throws with 10:16 to play. Arizona up 51-50. Big finish coming up.
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Arizona uses a 7-0 run to get right back in the game. Brandon Ashley converts a three-point play with 12:00 to play, with the ball going round and round the rim before falling.
SDSU’s Chase Tapley ends the run with a guarded 3-point shot, and Kevin Parrom responds by splashing a 3 to make it 48-47 with 11:22 to go.
Parrom has 10 points off the bench, and he and Solomon Hill can be on the court at the same time right now with shooting guard Nick Johnson switching over to the point.
The pace — and the quality of play — is picking up. This is more of what we expected to see from the marquee college basketball game on Christmas Day.
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Arizona’s Mark Lyons picks up his fourth foul with 13:23 to play. Nick Johnson will play the point for the Cats. Interesting choice for Sean Miller.
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Kevin Parrom gives Arizona a spark. He crashes the offensive glass to grab a missed 3-pointer from Nick Johnson and follows with a basket. On the other end, he grabs the rebound off a blocked shot and starts a fast break, feeding Johnson with a bounce pass to the wing. Johnson takes it in for a reverse layup to cut SDSU’s lead to 41-37.
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The Wildcats open the second half with consecutive turnovers, as big men Kaleb Tarczewski and Brandon Ashley can’t handle interior passes. For a game billed as a battle of the Best in the West, it’s been a sloppy game so far with few big-time highlights.
SDSU still hasn’t led, but it did tie the game at 29 on Jamaal Franklin’s first points of the game with 19:23 to play. Freshmen Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley and Grant Jerrett have a combined four points.
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Arizona forces SDSU into a desperation 3-pointer and a shot-clock violation with 4.5 seconds left in the first half. Solomon Hill, who leads the Cats with 10 points, comes down and misses a 25-footer at the buzzer as UA takes a 29-27 lead into halftime.
The Aztecs’ Jamaal Franklin, averaging 17.9 points per game, has been held scoreless. Arizona is shooting just 29.4 percent (10 of 34). Some of that is San Diego State’s excellent defense, but Arizona has been its own worst enemy on several occasions with long and too-quick 3-point attempts.
The Cats never trailed in the first half.
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Big play for San Diego State as Chase Tapley converts a three-point play with 1:21 left on a fast break to pull within 29-27.
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Solomon Hill asserting himself for the Wildcats, aggressively driving the ball into the heart of the San Diego State defense. This is a good showcase game for Hill, who is an unselfish player and usually just lets the game come to him. He is taking control in the first half, hitting 4 of 8 shots for nine points and he’ll be going to the line with 3:33 left in the half, the Wildcats up 26-24.
Tweets Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports: “Solomon Hill approaching man crush status.”
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SDSU’s Jamaal Franklin has two fouls and no points with less than six minutes left in the half. He’s the reigning Mountain West Player of the Year and is averaging 17.9 points per game this season.
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San Diego State is an excellent defensive team, allowing opponents to shoot 38.3 percent, but the Wildcats have a height advantage inside and has pulled down four offensive rebounds as it leads 19-16 with 7:51 left. The latest score for the Cats came as 6-8 post Brandon Ashley followed his own miss with a short shot from the middle of the lane. The Cats have a 15-10 edge on the glass.
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Kevin Parrom’s shot selection isn’t always the best. After missing badly on a long 3-point attempt, he drives without conviction to the basket and pulls up for a wild 8-footer. That leads to a SDSU fast break and layup that cuts Arizona’s lead to 16-13. That’s the score at the second TV timeout, 10:19 to go in the half.
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Arizona’s big wings Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom are on the court at the same time, and it pays off for coach Sean Miller. Parrom drives from top of the lane for a layup, Hill takes it himself for a fast-break layup and the foul, and then Parrom drills a 3-pointer at 13:52 of the first half.
With Mark Lyons’ long jumper, the Cats take a 12-5 lead with about 13 minutes to go.
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It’s a fast pace early, but neither team is sharp. San Diego State is 0 of 7 from the field at the first TV timeout, but Arizona isn’t much better, having hit just 1 of 6 as it leads 3-1. Point guard Mark Lyons has two turnovers for Arizona in the first four minutes in a tough matchup against Xavier Thames.
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The front page of NCAA.com features a preview of the Arizona-San Diego State game with this headline: “For all the pineapples”
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Arizona coach Sean Miller called San Diego State’s perimeter duo of point guard Xavier Thames, guard Chase Tapley and wing Jamaal Franklin “as good as it gets.”
It will be a fascinating match of strength on strength tonight as that experienced trio takes on UA’s Mark Lyons, Nick Johnson and Solomon Hill (with a dose of Kevin Parrom off the bench).
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The Arizona-San Diego State game will start about 40 minutes late because the third-place game at the Diamond Head Classic ran into overtime.
Could have been worse. Indiana State’s Jake Odum hit a leaning bank shot in the lane with less than a second left in overtime for a 57-55 victory. Great showing for the Sycamores, who began the tournament with a victory over Ole Miss.
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Miller is 0-2 against San Diego State, including a 61-57 setback at McKale Center last season.
Remember the Wildcats’ slow starts last season? The Aztecs raced to a 21-4 lead in that game and held on to end Arizona’s 22-game home winning streak. In the 2009-10 season, SDSU won by 17 against the visiting Cats.
“We respect San Diego State a great deal,” Miller said after Arizona’s victory over Miami in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic on Sunday.
“We’ve faced them twice since I’ve been here. The first time was almost unfair. They could have named the scored at San Diego State. Last year, they came to McKale and jumped out to that big early lead. That was before the rest of the nation really understood how good they were.”
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Arizona is trying for a 12-0 record tonight, which would match the program’s best since the 1987-88 season.