Picked to finish fifth in its first season in the Big 12 Conference, Arizona found itself tied for first place in the league after 12 games before a back-heavy schedule dropped it to third at the end of the regular season.
That created a scenario where the Wildcats would need to beat three of the best and most-experienced teams in three days in order to claim a conference tournament title on their first try. And then almost pulled it off.
Third-seeded Arizona matched regular-season champion Houston blow for blow for 35-plus minutes but could never get in a knockout punch, falling 72-64 in the Big 12 Tournament title game on Saturday afternoon in Kansas City.
The UA led 62-61 with 5:23 left—after being down 10 six minutes earlier—but didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way, missing its final five shots and turning it over three times down the stretch including on consecutive possessions when down two and four points in the last 1:09 as Houston (30-4) locked down on defense.
Caleb Love led Arizona (22-12) with 19 points, 14 in the first half to help build a 5-point lead, while Jaden Bradley had 14 points and KJ Lewis 11. The UA shot 43.9 percent but was only 5 of 18 from 3 and took just 12 free throws, fewest since late January.
Houston shot 42.6 percent and was 9 of 23 from 3, most of its makes on open looks. Milos Uzan scored a career-high 25 points, including five straight to give the Cougars a 66-62 lead with 3:53 to go.
Arizona turned it over 12 times, leading to 15 points for Houston while it got just eight points from nine Cougar giveaways.
The UA led 33-28 at the half, making 10 of its last 14 shots after a 3 for 16 start. That was the same margin at halftime in the previous meeting, with Houston erasing it in less than three minutes, and this time the Cougars had wiped it out in less than two thanks to a 6-0 run coming out of the break.
Carter Bryant hit a 3 to put the Wildcats back in front, with the UA going up four before Houston again took a 42-40 lead. The Cougars made nine of their first 12 shots in the second half and were up 56-46 with 11:43 to go.
This is when Arizona could have collapsed. Instead it chipped away at the deficit, with Bradley doing a lot of the damage. Back-to-back layups got the Wildcats within six, then he had three in a 7-0 run with Tobe Awaka’s putback giving the UA a 62-61 lead with 5:32 remaining.
Awaka had six points and nine rebounds but only took two shots, while Henri Veesaar had eight points on 4-of-6 shooting.
But then came a deadly cold spell for Arizona’s offense, which didn’t score for almost four minutes and went the rest of the way without without a field goal. Uzan scored five in a row to put Houston up for good and two Love free throws with 1:38 were the UA’s only points the rest of the way.
The Wildcats had a chance to tie it but Love was called for a travel with just over a minute left, then Bradley lost a ball with 31.3 seconds to go when it was a 4-point game and Houston made all four free throws in the last 17 seconds.
Houston drained an open 3-pointer less than 15 seconds into the game, setting an early theme. The Cougars hit three of those in the first 10 minutes to build a 17-9 lead but missed the other eight from outside in the first half.
After missing 13 of its first 16 shots the UA offense settled in, going on a 10-0 run to lead 21-19 with 5:52 left in the first half. It was only the 10th run of 10 or more allowed by Houston this season.
The Wildcats maintained the lead the rest of the half, going up two scores three times in the final 2:29 including on a putback dunk by Veesaar at the buzzer.
Arizona will find out its NCAA Tournament seed, opponent, region and opening weekend destination at 3 p.m. PT Sunday. The Wildcats are likely to earn a No. 4 seed and should end up playing in Denver or Seattle.
