Without the usual offense from Lauri Markkanen and Allonzo Trier, the Arizona Wildcats squeaked out a 62-57 victory over Cal tonight at McKale Center.
Trier didn't score until he shot two free throws with 17 seconds left, while Markkanen had just six points on 1-for-6 field-goal shooting.
Cal's Jabari Bird hit a 3-pointer to cut UA's lead to 61-57 with 10.1 seconds left, but Trier hit 1 of 2 free throws with 9.6 seconds left for the final score.
Kobi Simmons led UA in scoring with 13 points and Dusan Ristic 12 points to lead UA, while Kadeem Allen had 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.
While the Wildcats didn’t get much help offensively from Trier and Markkanen, they also minimized the talents of Cal forward Ivan Rabb on the other end. Rabb had just four points and four rebounds. Cal also went without starting point guard Charlie Moore in the second half because of an apparent hip injury.
The win extended UA’s homecourt winning streak to 20 games and moved UA to 23-3 overall and 12-1 in the Pac-12, where the Wildcats sit a game ahead of Oregon if Oregon beats USC tonight. Cal dropped to 18-7 and 9-4.
Earlier Saturday, Arizona was given a No. 3 NCAA Tournament seed in the Midwest region as of now during an early reveal of the selection committee’s actions to date. The ranking was behind Oregon’s No. 2 in the West, meaning the Wildcats would have to pass up the Ducks in the committee’s eyes to stay in the West Region.
Remaining in the Midwest region would, as of now, mean a potential matchup with Kansas in Kansas City in the Elite Eight. Kansas was given the No. 1 seed in the Midwest.
Committee chair Mark Hollis said the Ducks’ 85-58 win over Arizona moved Oregon ahead of Arizona, giving the Ducks a No. 2 seed and keeping them in the West Region, where they would face a potential Elite Eight game against Gonzaga in San Jose.
“At this point – we don’t have all the data points like we will in March – head-to-head common opponents became important,” Hollis said. “The head-to-head with Arizona and Oregon was looked at.”
Arizona followed up its loss with homecourt wins against Stanford and Cal this week, though both games had some tension.
Arizona took a 53-47 lead into the final three minutes Saturday, having held Cal to 43.6 percent shooting and 5-of-15 3-pointers at that point.
Cal cut UA’s lead to just four points midway through the second half, with the Wildcats going scoreless for four minutes and 19 seconds. But Ristic threw down a 15-foot jumper and later sank a hook shot to give the Wildcats a 47-39 lead with 8:33 left.
In a first half when Trier and Markkanen did not score, Simmons had 10 points and three assists off the bench to lead Arizona to a 34-25 halftime lead.
The Wildcats shot 51.9 percent from the field and scored seven points off six Cal turnovers, including a steal by Kadeem Allen left that he fed to Simmons for a dunk that made it 32-25 with 1:09 left. Parker Jackson-Cartwright made a layup in the final second for UA's final score of the half but later missed the front end of a one-and-one with 0.6 seconds left.
Cal shot 42.9 percent and hit 5 of 13 3-pointers but collected just one offensive rebound and scored no second-chance points. Both Jabari Bird and Grant Mullins had six points each on two 3-pointers for the Bears.
A 3-pointer from Cal’s Stephen Domingo gave the Bears an 18-17 lead with 6:48 left., with Cal having hit half of their eight threes at that point, but UA came back to take a 25-20 lead heading into the final four minutes after Dusan Ristic and Kadeem Allen received some friendly bounces off the rim.
Ristic threw up a layup that bounced several times off the rim before going on, while Allen shot a 3 from the right corner that bounced high off the front of the rim but then fell straight through the net.
After UA coach Sean Miller ripped into his team’s perimeter defense following a 74-67 win over Stanford on Wednesday, the Wildcats’ defense came out strongly in the first half. UA kept Cal without a field goal for the first 3:22 and forced three turnover through the first four minutes.
Three-point shooting heated up on both sides through the four minutes, with Jabari Bird and Grant Mullins hitting for Cal while Simmons made a pair of 3s from the left corner to keep UA ahead 15-13 with 11:41 to go.
Howver, both Trier and Markkanen had two fouls at that point, Markkanen just four minutes into the game and Trier 11 minutes in.
As expected, the Bears came out with a 2-3 zone defense and occasionally began it with a press. Miller was not available for comment since Wednesday but he said on his pregame radio show that he expected Cal would play the 2-3 zone for most if not the entire game.
“They’ve improved and do a great job with the zone,” Miller said on the pregame show. “For us, it’s play with confidence, push the ball down the court and get our version of second shots.”
