Arizona Wildcats pull away from Utah in 3rd overtime for 105-99 win in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY — Losing their first three Pac-12 games away from McKale Center taught the Arizona Wildcats how tough life can be on the road, but this was something else altogether.

After watching their 16-point lead early in the second half melt away, turning a potential blowout into a 55-minute thriller, the Wildcats finally pulled away for a three-overtime 105-99 win over Utah at the Huntsman Center.

UA guard Caleb Love hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 99-93 lead with 2:13 left in triple overtime during a stretch when they kept the Utes scoreless for over 3½ minutes.

Pelle Larsson led the Wildcats in scoring with a career-high 27 points, while adding seven rebounds and eight assists, on the same floor where he spent his freshman season of 2020-21 as a Ute.

Point guard Kylan Boswell added 16 points and five rebounds despite missing three minutes late in the second half after sustaining an unspecified injury to his left shoulder.

It was Arizona’s longest game since the Wildcats lost at USC 103-101 in a four-overtime thriller during the 2015-16 season. UA hadn’t won a game with more than two overtimes since the Wildcats won at Cal 107-105 in a three-overtime game during the 2010-11 season.

The win moved UA to 18-5, 9-3 in the Pac-12, where the Wildcats remain alone in first place heading into a game Saturday at Colorado. Previously undefeated at home this season, Utah dropped to 15-8, 6-6.

“If you want to compete for a conference championship, you have to be able to compete and win some games on the road,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Obviously, we didn't get it done at Washington State. We didn't get it done at Oregon State, and Stanford obviously we didn’t get it done when we played there. But I think we're playing better basketball now. I think we're building and I think all these experiences are accumulating.”

Their experience Thursday was reminiscent of how they built a big early lead against Florida Atlantic early on Dec. 23 in Las Vegas, then lost in double overtime. But this time the Wildcats found a way to get it done.

Though Love missed a 35-footer with two seconds left in regulation and was just 5 for 20 overall and 3 of 11 from 3-point range, his 3 in triple overtime gave UA a six-point lead at a time of the game when Lloyd suggested six points might have felt like 12, or more.

The Utes never recovered. UA went on to build a 102-93 lead with 40 seconds left on a free throw by Jaden Bradley as fans filed out of the Huntsman Center.

“Both teams played a lot of minutes, and there wasn't a lot of subbing going on,” Lloyd said. “You hit some of these overtimes, especially when you hit the multiple overtimes, and if you can get that four to six-point lead, it makes a huge difference. We were able to do that.”

Arizona took an 88-84 lead in the second overtime period after Love drew a 3-point shooting foul from Utah’s Hunter Erickson and hit all three ensuing free throws. An alley-oop dunk from Keba Keita later tied it at 88, but Larsson drove in for a layup to give UA a 90-88 lead with three minutes left in the period.

After Utah tied the game at 91 on two free throws from Keita, Arizona had two chances to take the lead and possibly win the game at the end of the second overtime period.

First, Keita was called for a foul while blocking Larsson’s shot with 52 seconds left. But Larsson missed both free throws.

“Obviously I could have put the game away, but we had to play defense right after so there's no time to think about it, no time to dwell or anything,” Larsson said. “So it was just ‘next play.’ We kept moving.”

Their defense may have helped prompt Utah’s Gabe Madsen to take a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left on that next play and miss wildly. That gave Arizona another chance to win it, this time to Love.

He dribbled down to the two-second mark before launching a 35-foot shot that missed, and the game went into a third overtime.

Love wasn’t one of the players UA selected for comment after the game, but Lloyd praised his lack of fear and blamed himself somewhat for the missed opportunity.

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“Maybe I could have called a timeout there. I regret that now,” Lloyd said. “But I trust Caleb with the ball in his hands. We were in the double bonus and so I just told Caleb, `Maybe you’ve got to be a little bit more aggressive there.'

“Playing against that zone is a little funky. I probably should have called the timeout and put our guys in a little bit better position, but I also know Caleb's fully capable of making that shot no matter how well he's playing, because he's not scared.”

In the first overtime period, the game was tied at 82 with 26 seconds left when Utah point guard Deivon Smith stepped out of bounds with 5.1 seconds left, though UA also came up short with that opportunity.

Love inbounded to center Oumar Ballo, who passed it back to Love. Love then dribbled downcourt and to the right side of the basket, but his 12-foot floater missed at the buzzer.

In regulation, the Wildcats carried a five-point lead heading into the final minute, though a dunk from Keita cut their lead to 76-73 with 52 seconds left. Utah called a timeout before the Wildcats could set up their offense.

After the timeout, Arizona managed to take some time off the clock. But Love missed a 12-footer with 26 seconds left. Utah’s Smith grabbed the rebound and passed to Madsen, who spotted up for a quick 3-pointer from the right wing that sailed through the net to tie it at 76 with 19.4 seconds left.

The game then went into overtime after the Wildcats passed the ball around the right wing several times before a 25-footer from Boswell with one second left bounced off the rim.

With 5:25 left in regulation, Boswell suffered what initially appeared to be a serious injury to his left shoulder. He left the floor grimacing in pain and headed into the locker room with UA trainer Justin Kokoskie while clutching his left shoulder. Boswell returned to the bench five minutes later while Kokoskie took a massage gun to the injured area.

Lloyd said after the game that he didn’t know what happened but was told only that Boswell was good to return.

"He told me he was fine to come back in," Lloyd said. "Obviously, he got hit in the shoulder or something."

Arizona led by 16 at halftime and again early in the second half, but Utah gradually chipped away over the first 10 minutes of the second half with torrid shooting.

After shooting just 32.4% in the first half, Utah was 52.4% from the field over the first 10 minutes of the second half while hitting all six 3-pointers it tried.

Instead of calling it something of a collapse, Lloyd instead praised the Wildcats for building a cushion in the first place.

"You go up to 16 on the road, it's really important because these games are hard to win," Lloyd said. "You're playing in a place where they haven't lost. I'm assuming they're going to make a run in the second half. So to have that buffer ... that lead in the first half allowed us to absorb how well they played in the second half. Then we got it into overtime, and we were able to find a way to win."

Photos: No. 8 Arizona men's basketball team defeats Utah 105-99 in triple overtime