LOS ANGELES β Instead of waiting to clinch the Pac-12 title before a supportive home crowd this weekend, the Arizona Wildcats opted instead to do it via a more impressive and much more difficult route: They crushed 16th-ranked USC 91-71 before an initially-rowdy capacity crowd at USCβs Galen Center.
The win clinched Arizonaβs 17th won or shared Pac-12 regular season title and first since 2017-18, while giving coach Tommy Lloyd a championship in his first season at the Wildcats' coach.
"This is the standard for this program," Lloyd told the Wildcats in a rowdy locker-room celebration afterward, as seen on an Instagram live video shared by center Oumar Ballo. "This is what we do."
Arizona, now 26-3 overall and 16-2 in the Pac-12, will finish out the regular season with home games against Stanford on Thursday and against California on Saturday. Second-place USC dropped to 25-5 and 14-5.
The Wildcats had five players in double figures, with Bennedict Mathurin scoring 19 to lead the way and Kerr Kriisa adding 18. On the other end, UA held USC to just 39.7% shooting, including 4-of-18 3-point attempts.
"I'd just say it was pretty fun," Mathurin said. "They're a pretty good team. We just came in here and had a plan."
The win punctuated what continues to be a surprising season for the Wildcats, who entered the season unranked and were picked to finish in a fourth-place tie in the Pac-12 race.
Arizona will now take the No. 1 seed in next week's Pac-12 Tournament, opening at 1 p.m. on Thursday against the winner of the No. 8-vs. No. 9 game on Wednesday, and is also in line for a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
"Bear down. Bear down. Bear down. Bear down. Bear down," Ballo said on his Instagram video.
Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa prepares to shoot over USC forward Max Agbonkpolo during the first half of Tuesday's game.
Arizona also pulled out Tuesday's win by rebounding from a potentially soul-draining 79-63 loss at Colorado just three days earlier and easily winning what was the Wildcats' third road game over the past five days.
"We took that 'L' to the head and we knew we had to fix some things from that game," Kier said. "But we weren't too down on ourselves because we know we could have played better. So we got back in the gym and adjusted. You've gotta let those games go because you've gotta come in and prepare for this one."
After guiding them through workouts Sunday and Monday, Lloyd said he sensed the Wildcats would quickly put the Colorado game behind them.
"They were excited to play and you saw that look in their eye early," Lloyd said. "I felt great about (pregame) shootaround today and I was just trying not to get too excited because that doesn't always translate to a win but this time the guys brought us home."
While Mathurin may have cemented the Pac-12 Player of the Year award Tuesday with his 19-point performance, Kerr Kriisa added 18 points and Justin Kier had 12. Their performances helped the Wildcats thrive despite foul trouble to center Christian Koloko and forward Azuolas Tubelis.
Koloko had just eight points and one rebound in 12 minutes played while Tubelis had three points and four rebounds in just 18 minutes.
As a result, Arizona instead mostly attacked the lengthy Trojans with a smaller lineup that often featured four guards and Koloko or Ballo in the middle. Mathurin had his 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting while Kriisa had 16 points and Justin Kier had 12. Ballo managed 11 points and five rebounds while playing 25 minutes.
"That's situational, foul-driven," Lloyd said. "And sometimes something's playing out in front of you and you let it roll. I don't know if we've had three guys with two fouls in the first 10 minutes, and then C-Lo picked up a quick third and we had to kind of do it by committee.
"That small lineup got rolling a little bit, played great defense and got us in transition a little bit and made some timely shots in the half-court offense."
Despite the adjustments, the Wildcats never lost control of a game they never trailed.
While shooting 55.6% overall and hit 10 of 22 3-pointers, UA held USC to just 39.7% shooting on the other end, taking a 51-27 halftime lead and holding on during the second half.
In the first half, Mathurin led the way for Arizona by scoring 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting while dishing five assists. Guards Kriisa and Justin Kier each added nine points.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd gestures during the second half of Tuesday's win.
Overall, Arizona shot 55.0% from the field before halftime while holding USC to 32.1% shooting, including just 1 of 8 3-pointers. The Wildcats also turned nine USC turnovers into 15 points.Β
Arizona led throughout the half and took a 39-23 lead into the final four minutes. The Wildcats took a 44-34 lead with 2:47 left on a dunk from Ballo, and a shot from Kier made it 46-23 with 1:48 to go.
The Wildcats wasted no time building a lead. Kriisa hit a 3-pointer just 23 seconds into the game and UA built up a 17-8 lead with 14:43 left in the half after Kriisa and Kier hit 3-pointers. At that point, UA had made 7 of 10 shots while holding USC to just 3 of 10.
Arizona opened it up by 16 points midway through the half, 26-11, and later led 33-18 after two 3-pointers from Kriisa. Officials called a flop on Kriisa after his shot, which resulted in a technical since Mathurin had received a flop warning.
The technical resulted in a free throw by Drew Peterson, but the Wildcats still maintained comfortable double-digit leads the rest of the game.
Now they return home in position to earn a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed by beating Stanford and Cal, potentially regardless of how they do in the Pac-12 Tournament next week.
Lloyd said he isn't thinking about seeding at this point but he does know what just happened: The Wildcats just won a championship they were not expected to.
"It's March and we had an opportunity and you have to go grab opportunities," Lloyd said. "Our guys did a great job of that and you probably couldn't have scripted it any better."
