Justin Coleman sends Wildcats into holiday break with 3-pointer to beat UC Davis

Justin Coleman hit the shot that ultimately mattered most, stepping to the right before firing in a game-winning 3-pointer with just a minute left Saturday at McKale Center, and for that the Wildcats can be grateful.

But the biggest memory that they — and certainly their coach — will carry into a four-day Christmas break might be the shots that UC Davis guard TJ Shorts made by twisting, blurring and straight-on slashing his way to the basket, over and over during the final minutes of Arizona’s 70-68 win.

A 5-foot-9 dynamo who was last season’s Big West Player of the Year, Shorts nearly took over the bigger stage at McKale, scoring the Aggies’ final eight points of the game and totaling a career-high 25 points.

Despite his size, Shorts didn’t need to take a single one of his shots from beyond the 3-point arc to make it happen. To make the crowd of about 13,000 stand up on its feet. To make what was a 15-point UA lead disappear.

“He was great tonight,” Miller said of Shorts. “I don’t know too many guards who go 10 for 15 from two. That’s what he was: 10 for 15 from two. We didn’t really have an answer.”

But after Coleman’s 3 went in to break the ninth tie of the game, Shorts threw a layup attempt that bounced high off the glass and didn’t fall in. It was the only miss of the six shots he took over the final eight minutes.

Shorts hustled back to try and keep the game alive again anyway, batting away a layup from Coleman. But the Wildcats kept possession and, even after Coleman missed a final 3-point attempt with 15 seconds left, UC Davis couldn’t manage a decent shot before the final buzzer, with a last second 3-point attempt from Rogers Printup missing considerably.

So, finally, it was Christmas for the Wildcats.

But a merry one? Maybe.

The Wildcats are 9-4 heading into Pac-12 play, having demonstrated once again that nothing is for granted this season while hanging on to beat a UC Davis team that is just 3-8.

“We have no room for error,” Miller said, after crediting Shorts and the Aggies. “We have to do things right. We have to play with great effort, togetherness. We can’t have a single player who worries about getting taken out of the game, or (about) shots. Any dysfunction.

“Because our margin of error is razor thin, because we felt that in the first six to eight minutes of the second half.”

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That’s the time period when Arizona’s 11-point halftime lead quickly melted away. The Aggies, screening their way inside for easy buckets, hit their first five shots after halftime to go on a 12-5 run and cut UA’s lead to just 46-42 with 16:38 left.

UC Davis tied it at 48 on a three-point play from Garrison Goode with 14:17 left, and then tied the game seven more times before Shorts made a layup to give them a 64-62 lead with 4:58 left.

“Just with the flow of the game, things change and we kind of …” said UA center Chase Jeter, who stopped himself right there and began referring to Shorts. “He’s a great player, man, and I was having trouble with that ball screen all night. So give credit to him and their team. He’s a great player.”

At the same time as the final two minutes approached, Coleman had taken just two shots, and missed them both. Yet he said those around him gave him the confidence to step back and to the right of Davis’ Siler Schneider and put in the winning shot.

“My teammates believe in me, my coaches believe in me, and I believe in myself as well so I decided to take the shot and I made it,” Coleman said.

PHOTOS: Arizona Wildcats 70, UC Davis Aggies 68

SEEN AND HEARD: On taking a charge, Allonzo Trier's gift and McKale Center's holiday spirit

It was a moment that was somewhat reminiscent of Coleman’s Maui Invitational performance, when he averaged 20.7 points over three games and shot 57.1 percent from the field and made the all-tournament team.

This time it wasn’t the volume of shots he made but the timing of the one he did.

“Credit Justin Coleman,” Miller said. “He’s one of those guys the bigger the moment, he seems to rise to the challenge. He’s had a very, very important role in our nonconference season.”

But that’s over now, and there’s no telling exactly where the Wildcats go from here. Miller said the results from his team’s nonconference season were inconclusive, though they made at least one thing clear: Any game, anywhere, might be scary the rest of the way.

“The second half, clearly it was UC Davis’ game,” Miller said. “We’re very, very lucky to win. Fortunate to win.”