Top-seeded Wildcats' magical season ends with Sweet 16 loss to Houston

SAN ANTONIO — After far exceeding expectations while riding a fast-paced, confident style into to the Sweet 16, the Arizona Wildcats ended their season in an almost completely opposite fashion.

The Wildcats lost to Houston 72-60 Thursday at the AT&T Center while shooting just 33.3% and allowing the Cougars to shoot 46.0%. Houston also controlled the pace and played far more opportunistically.

"I knew we were going to make them uncomfortable," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "That’s what we do."

The Cougars scored 18 more points off turnovers than Arizona did, and six more second-chance points -- despite collecting four fewer offensive rebounds (12) than Arizona (16). The Wildcats had 14 turnovers that led to 24 Houston points while scoring just six points off Houston's 12 turnovers.

Entering the game with the ninth-fastest adjusted tempo and a scoring margin of plus-16.7, the Wildcats never led. They trailed by up to 10 points in the first half and fell behind by 12 at several points in the second half, including the final seconds.

Sampson said he watched Arizona play UCLA and Colorado and didn't want to switch everything defensively against the Wildcats as those teams did, which he said allowed the Wildcats to stay comfortable.

Tempo was another huge factor. Houston runs the nation's 21st slowest tempo, and managed to keep the Wildcats largely on its terms.

"The key to beating Arizona is controlling the pace," Sampson said. "We felt like if we could hold them in the 50s — and if we don’t turn the ball over we probably keep them in the 50s. We can't win if the game in the 80s. Then they’re doing what they want.

"If the game's in the 50s and 60s, that means our defense is really good."

It was.

Unable to find their rhythm or normal aggressiveness much of the game against the Cougars' defense, the Wildcats displayed only short bursts of their usual selves and never found any sustained momentum.

The Wildcats managed to cut it to 64-58 after Dalen Terry scored inside with 2:12 to go but when Houston's Kyler Edwards hit his fifth of nine 3-pointers with 1:26 left, the Cougars had a 67-58 lead and hung on from there.

"Houston is one of those teams where you're better served off if you play them a couple times," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "I think the first time you play them, they do the things they're good at a such a high level, that it's hard for you to get comfortable. Maybe the second time you play them, you can try to tell your guys what's coming."

Arizona Wildcats guard Pelle Larsson tries to console guard Dalen Terry after the buzzer.
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

But of course, there are no second chances in the NCAA Tournament.

The loss ended top-seeded Arizona’s season at 33-4 while fifth-seeded Houston (32-5) moved on to an Elite Eight game with second-seeded Villanova, a 63-55 winner over Michigan in Thursday’s other South Region semifinal.

"Overall it was great," Lloyd said. "I thanked these guys after the game. They're an amazing group of guys. I'll always be thankful for them. I think they helped me get Arizona basketball off to a good start in my tenure, and I'll always be thankful for them.

"I think we really built some foundational pieces this year that are really going to serve us well moving forward. Extremely proud of the guys. Extremely proud of the coaching staff. We ran into a really good team tonight that was just a little bit too much for us."

Houston also had strong support from the crowd, playing just three hours away from campus despite being the lower-seeded team. Like Arizona, Houston fans wore red and even chanted in the same manner ("U of H, U of H")

"The energy was electric," Houston guard Jamal Shead said. "It was awesome."

While Terry had 17 points to lead UA, and Bennedict Mathurin added 15, the Wildcats received only three points from guard Kerr Kriisa and two from Azuolas Tubelis who was 0 for 8 from the field.

In his first start since spraining his ankle on March 10, Kriisa shot 1 for 7 from the field — all 3-point attempts — and had four rebounds, one assist, two turnovers and four fouls.

Tubelis missed all eight shots he took, while collecting five rebounds but also committing four turnovers.

For Houston, Edwards finished with 19 points while hitting 5 of 9 3-pointers. Point guard Jamal Shead had 21 points, four rebounds and six assists with five turnovers.

Over the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Wildcats had hit 7 of 15 shots from the field but allowed Houston to hit 5 of 6 3-pointers during that period. By the time Edwards hit his fourth of eight 3-pointers taken with 7:46 left, from the left corner, Houston held a 59-47 lead.

Trailing 34-28 at halftime, Arizona had pulled within 37-35 four minutes into the second with a more characteristic offensive flow led by Tubelis. Scoreless in the first half. Tubelis drew a foul that led to two free throws and collected a defensive rebound that led to a layup by Pelle Larsson.

But things didn't get any better for the Wildcats. Edwards and Shead hit 3-pointers to put the Cougars ahead 45-40 after the next four minutes.

At the beginning of the game, the Cougars wasted no time setting the tone. They took a 34-28 halftime lead while keeping the Wildcats to just 28% shooting.

The Wildcats missed six of seven shots through the first four minutes while Houston built a 7-3 lead. Arizona had two early turnovers, with one by Tubelis leading to a 3-pointer from Houston’s Taze Moore.

Things were largely unchanged the rest of the half, after which both Kriisa and Tubelis were scoreless.

The Wildcats' loss somewhat mirrored those they suffered at Tennessee and UCLA earlier this season. Arizona trailed at halftime of seven games this season, winning four of them, but lost at UCLA, at Tennessee and against Houston after scoring less than 30 points and trailing at halftime.

This loss hit harder, of course.

For some of them, it could be their last game in an Arizona uniform. The three players Arizona brought to the interview podium — Mathurin, Koloko and Terry — all declined to discuss their pro decisions ahead. Mathurin is a near-certainty to leave, being a solidly projected first rounder, while Koloko and Terry have all generated NBA buzz this season.

"We're not thinking about that right now," Terry said. "We just lost a game."

Koloko, meanwhile, found the moment overshadowing the way Arizona exceeded expectations this season.

Unranked and picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 entering the season, the Wildcats captured both the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles while earning their first No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed since 2014.

But those regular-season accomplishments also generated higher postseason expectations, the kind that don't end in the Sweet 16.

"We started the season, and nobody believed in us. We made them believe in us," Koloko said. "We knew we could have done better. That's why our team is sad right now. We knew how good of a team we were, but right now we can't do anything. So we've just got to learn from it."