LAS VEGAS — While marveling at fans sitting in the upper reaches of the vast T-Mobile Arena for a second straight night, Deandre Ayton hardly worried about one particularly famous basketball guy right in front of him.
Sitting courtside, Magic Johnson could see every one of the 32 season-high points and 14 rebounds Ayton collected Friday while he led the Arizona Wildcats to the Pac-12 Tournament championship game with a 78-67 win over UCLA in overtime.
“I was surprised,” Ayton said. “I don’t even know why he was there.”
Ayton was then reminded that Johnson, um, runs the Los Angeles Lakers.
“That’s a blessing,” Ayton said. “I’m glad I performed well. He came to the right game.”
Not that it may matter. Ayton said again Friday that he’ll be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft next June, meaning Johnson’s opinion won’t matter as much to Ayton’s fate as a lottery pingpong ball will, but that he is only worried about getting the Wildcats a national championship first.
If he plays like he did Friday, Ayton may find both of those things happening.
Ayton’s dominant play in 40-plus minutes, including an overtime period when he scored the first eight points, helped offset UA’s initial rebounding issues and a 2-of-13 shooting night by Allonzo Trier. Ayton’s double-double also tied the UA season record of 22 set by Al Fleming in 1974-75.
After UA avenged UCLA’s 82-74 win at McKale Center last month, Trier sat in his locker stall with a smile, glad that Ayton appeared to have cured the butterflies he cited after getting just 10 points and six rebounds against Colorado a night earlier.
“I asked him if he was a little anxious and he said 'yeah,'" Trier said of Ayton. “It was good to see him rebound and get back to his dominant self.”
UA senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who added 11 points and four assists while making 3 of 5 3-pointers, said it was a syndrome former UA freshmen standouts such as Lauri Markkanen and Stanley Johnson went through, too.
“All the big-time players get it,” Jackson-Cartwright said.
After UA trailed 30-26 at halftime, lacking a single offensive rebound in the first half while PJC went 0 for 3, things changed in the second half. UCLA, which shot 51.6 percent from the field at McKale, shot just 39.7-percent shooting Friday.
UCLA standout point guard Aaron Holiday was just 3 of 12 from 3-point range while scoring 15 points, although center Thomas Welsh led UCLA with 17 points and 17 rebounds.
In regulation, Welsh hit a 3-pointer with 1:53 left to tie the game at 65 but Ayton made a rebound basket to give Arizona a 67-65 lead entering the final minute.
Jaylen Hands drove in for a layup with eight seconds left to tie it at 67 and then UCLA had a final chance to win after UA’s Rawle Alkins was called for traveling before he threw up an errant 25-footer with 1.9 seconds left.
Kris Wilkes inbounded to Holiday just over the midcourt line, and Holiday drove for a 30-footer that squeezed between the rim and backboard but did not fall in. The Bruins never scored again, through five minutes of overtime play.
Down by four at halftime, Arizona opened the second half on an 18-8 run, hitting seven of its first nine shots from the field, including two 3-pointers from Jackson-Cartwright. That gave the Wildcats a 44-38 lead with 15:35 left and the Wildcats kept leads of two possessions or more throughout the middle of the second half.
But a layup from Hands through the UA defense cut Arizona’s lead to 55-52 entering the final eight minutes. The Wildcats made just 1 of 10 field goals heading into the final five minutes, allowing UCLA to tie the game at 60 after Trier missed a 3-pointer and Kris Wilkes raced downcourt and dunked over him with 4:45 left.
In the first half, UCLA took a 30-26 lead by outrebounding UA 22-13, with six offensive rebounds. Welsh had 11 rebounds alone for the Bruins, while Ayton had seven points and six rebounds.
UA was 3 of 13 from 3-point range while UCLA was 4 of 16. In those first 20 minutes, the Bruins shot just 37.5 percent from the field while Arizona made 40.7 percent.
UCLA took an early 11-6 lead when the Bruins hit three of their first five 3-point shots while keeping Ayton scoreless until he hit a 3-pointer with 13:26 left in the half to cut UCLA’s lead to 15-11.
Arizona then pulled within 17-16 after Keanu Pinder hit an 8-footer and later drew a foul off a no-look pass from Ayton, hitting 1 of 2 ensuing free throws.
But the Bruins went ahead 22-16 after Hands hit a 13-foot jumper and Chris Smith made a 3 in front of the UA bench with 7:20 left. At that point, UCLA had hit 4 of 12 3s while UA was just 1 of 8. UCLA was also outrebounding UA 15-10 then.
Arizona went on a 7-0 run to take a brief 23-22 lead but then was scoreless for nearly three minutes while UCLA carried a lead into halftime.
