Their two leading scorers ran into early foul trouble and never did appear their usual selves, but the Arizona Wildcats found other ways to win Saturday.
Namely, by rebounding and showing some defensive improvement in their 62-57 win over Cal at McKale Center.
Allonzo Trier didn’t score until he shot two free throws with 17 seconds left, while Lauri Markkanen had just six points on 1-for-6 field-goal shooting, after Trier and Markkanen entered Saturday’s game averaging about 15 points a game.
As a result, the Bears kept it interesting until the end, but in the end could not overcome a limited production of standout forward Ivan Rabb, who had four points and four rebounds, while starting point guard Charlie Moore missed the second half with a hip injury.
Cal shot 43.5 percent from the field but shot only 31.6 percent from 3-point range and had just four offensive rebounds.
Jabari Bird, who led Cal in scoring with 19 points, 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 and UA left McKale Center with its 20th straight hoemcourt win.
“Lauri had a tough night,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “ For us to have Allonzo and Lauri play the way they did and win it, I’ll take it.”
Cal was outrebounded 32-24 overall. Rabb’s four points tied his lowest-scoring effort of the year (at Oregon), while he was the focus of UA’s blocking out.
“Coach said all week they were a good offensive rebounding team,” UA guard Kadeem Allen said.
Offensively, Kobi Simmons led UA in scoring with 13 points and Dusan Ristic 12 points to lead UA, while Allen had 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Simmons came off the bench for the second straight game and, even though he found Markkanen already in foul trouble at that point, shrugged off the issues with Markkanen and Trier.
“We’re used to adjusting,” Simmons said. “We went through a lot throughout the season.”
The win moved UA to 23-3 overall and 12-1 in the Pac-12, where the Wildcats sit a game ahead of Oregon, an 81-70 winner at USC on Saturday. 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 at Oregon 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 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 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 its eight threes at that point, but UA came back to take a 25-20 lead heading into the final four minutes after Ristic and Allen received some friendly bounces off the rim.
Ristic threw up a layup that bounced several times off the rim before going in, 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 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 turnovers through the first four minutes.
Three-point shooting heated up on both sides through the four minutes, with Bird and 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.
However, both Trier and Markkanen had two fouls at that point, Markkanen just four minutes into the game and Trier 11 minutes in.
In the end, Miller found the defense much improved over their shaky effort against Stanford on Wednesday.
“Of course I’m very, very happy with the defense,” Miller said. “Our defensive rebounding was terrific and of course we had a few breakdowns, but Jabari Bird was outstanding. He made contested shots. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort.”
