Bumps, bruises and fouls couldn’t ruin Senior Day for the Arizona Wildcats.
Arizona beat Stanford 91-69 in a foul-plagued game Saturday while saying a McKale Center farewell to three seniors and several underclassmen who are expected to leave after the season.
Senior guard T.J. McConnell capped it all when he kissed the court on his way out, having finished with a double double of 10 points and 11 assists. He was greeted again by "MVP" chants, being one of the top candidates to win Pac-12 Player of the Year honors on Monday.
The win finished Arizona’s regular season at 28-3 overall and 16-2 in the Pac-12, while pushing their nation-best 38-game homecourt winning streak into next season. The Wildcats will open Pac-12 Tournament play on Thursday in Las Vegas against the winner of a No. 8 vs No. 9 first-round game.
Stanford finished 18-12 and 9-9 and will take the No. 6 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament while ASU (also 9-9) earned the No. 5 seed by virtue of its win over Arizona last month in Tempe.
After the game, Arizona honored its senior players and managers while later cutting down the nets to celebrate its second straight Pac-12 championship.
Between the ceremonies, UA coach Sean Miller thanked the McKale Center fans.
"These guys and every coach recognizes that the last weekend of college basketball isn’t like this everywhere," Miller said. "We have a very good team and as you know hopefully, this journey is just beginning.
"And the message I want to make clear is this is a total team effort from (UA AD) Greg Byrne ... to the people who show up and I’m talking to you 14,500 ... so many people who have givenb so much to make Arizona basketball special. It’s an honor to be the coach, it’s an honor to play here and let’s keep doing this."
After UA took a 47-31 halftime lead the game slipped into a bout of chippiness, with Stanley Johnson picking up a personal foul and a technical. That allowed Anthony Brown to hit 1 of 2 free throws although Stanford still came no closer than 15 points over that stretch.
The game totaled 49 fouls, resembling the foul-fest that featured 51 whistles on Jan. 22 at Maples Pavilion. Stanford's Stefan Nastic and Chasson Randle fouled out.
Despite all the tension, UA held an 89-64 lead when UA coach Sean Miller inserted senior reserve Matt Korcheck and walk-on Drew Mellon with 2:46 left. At that point, UA had held Stanford to 39.1-percent shooting and outrebounded the Cardinal 33-22.
Arizona shot 58.3 percent from the field to that point.
In the first half, Arizona went on a 13-0 run to take a 47-31 halftime lead. The Wildcats held Stanford to just 39.1-percent shooting while making 55.2 percent of their own shots. Kaleb Tarczewski and Gabe York each had 10 points for Arizona, while Brandon Ashley had nine points and five rebounds.
Arizona led Stanford by up to 13 points early but were ahead just 29-27 after Dorian Pickens hit two free throws with 6:41 remaining. The Wildcats then went on their 13-0 run, holding Stanford scoreless for five minutes.
Miller started lightly used senior Korcheck at center instead of Tarczewski, and the Wildcats’ first play couldn’t have been better scripted: McConnell fired a pass at Korcheck to the right of the Stanford defense and the forward made an easy layup.
From there, the Wildcats jumped out to leads of 10-3 and 16-5, while holding Stanford to just 2 of 8 field goal shooting to start the game. But three-pointers from Randle and Rosco Allen helped Stanford cut Arizona’s lead to single digits, 21-14 with 11:08 left and the Cardinal later crept within 27-23 after Dorian Pickens hit a midrange shot.
The Wildcats entered the game at 27-4 overall and 15-2 in the Pac-12, already having wrapped up the conference’s outright title. Stanford was 18-11 and 9-8 entering today’s game.
Arizona will open Pac-12 tournament play at noon Thursday in Las Vegas against the winner of the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game. A win in that game would advance Arizona to a semifinal game potentially against No. 4 seed UCLA or No. 5 ASU.
Who plays in the 8-9 game is dependent on the WSU-Colorado game in Pullman later today. A WSU win would put the Cougars and Cal into 8-9 game, while a Colorado win would mean Cal and Colorado would play in it.
