The Arizona Wildcats lost 72-64 to ASU in the regular-season finale on Saturday at McKale Center to finish with an 8-10 Pac-12 record, their worst conference mark since 2007-08.
Combined with Arizona's 95-88 loss at ASU on Jan. 31, it also was the first time UA had lost a two-game season series to ASU in a decade.
The loss dropped UA to 17-14 and into the No. 9 Pac-12 Tournament seed. The Wildcats will play in the first round on Wednesday at noon, against No. 8 seed USC.
ASU improved to 21-9 and 12-6 in the Pac-12, having already clinched the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament next week.
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Remy Martin led the Sun Devils with 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists while Ryan Luther and Brandon Randolph each had 12 points for Arizona.
The game was tied 33-33 at halftime and UA led 39-38 after four minutes of the second half before ASU took advantage of several UA mistakes to go on a 12-3 run that included three dunks from Kimani Lawrence, Romello White and Luguentz Dort.
The 12-3 run gave ASU a 52-44 lead by the time Dort threw his dunk down with 10:01 left, but the Wildcats then rattled off a 10-1 run to take a brief 54-53 lead on a 3-pointer from Justin Coleman with 7:35 left. But Brandon Williams fouled out with 13:18 left, making it difficult for the Wildcats to gain ground.
ASU then went ahead for good after scoring six straight points to go ahead 59-54 with six minutes left, taking leads of up to 10 points, though Brandon Randolph hit a 3-pointer to cut the Sun Devils’ lead to 70-63 with 1:39 left.
But as the Sun Devils maintained their lead and the clock neared zero, many fans at McKale Center stood up and chanted "U of A."
In the first half, the Wildcats shot 39.1 percent and hit only 2 of 11 3-pointers, but stayed close because they took 15 trips to the free-throw line and hit 13 free throws. ASU was just 5 of 9 from the free-throw line.
Ira Lee led UA with seven points in the first half while Martin had 10 for ASU.
Arizona jumped out aggressively, shooting 50 percent through the first 12 minutes while taking 10 trips to the free-throw line and making nine free throws over that period. UA led by up to six points on several occasions early, including a 21-15 lead when Luther hit a 3-pointer with 11:41 left in the first half.
ASU shot 50 percent from the field and hit 4 of 7 3-pointers.
ASU took an early 6-3 lead, on two shots from Martin and a dunk from Dort. But Dort also nearly offset a 3-pointer he later hit to give ASU an 11-8 lead, taunting UA’s Dylan Smith at midcourt after making the shot and getting called for a technical foul because of it.
Smith then hit the ensuing two free throws to cut it to 11-10, and UA went ahead 16-14 despite another 3 from Dort when Chase Jeter dunked.
Lee started in place of Jeter, who had been limited in practice this week with a bruised knee, but Jeter came in the game after the first media timeout.
