Seniors collectively lead Arizona Wildcats to 103-83 win over Oregon in McKale season finale

In between slapping pregame high-fives with Zona Zoo students and grabbing the microphone postgame to express love for McKale fans, Arizona’s five seniors also managed to carry out the perfect Senior Day game script.

In No. 6-ranked Arizona’s 103-83 win over Oregon on Saturday, three Wildcat seniors — Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love — scored more than 20 points, while center Oumar Ballo posted his ninth straight double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Then there was the Wildcats’ longest-tenured senior, Tucson native Grant Weitman, pulling in two steals in the first four minutes after receiving a Senior Day start.

That’s four senior transfers and a four-year walkon .... all playing highlight roles in what could be their last games at McKale ... in a game that pushed them closer to a conference title during their final season in the Pac-12.

Did they write it up that way beforehand?

The five players, all sitting together later at the McKale interview podium, smiled over that one.

Nobody knew. It just happened.

“Everybody gave it their all,” Johnson said. “We gave McKale our all. That’s just the results of it.”

Also fittingly, maybe, was that the Wildcats (23-6, 14-4 Pac-12) had a sophomore who might also be playing his last game at McKale, igniting the whole thing by dropping 19 points off the bench in just 14 minutes before halftime.

Kylan Boswell, rated the No. 65 prospect in ESPN’s latest list of NBA Draft prospects, hit 5 of 6 3-pointers in the first half while collecting two rebounds and two assists to total 19 before halftime.

“He’s the youngest on the team but, man, his ceiling is crazy high,” Johnson said of Boswell. “He’s got so much weight on his shoulders just by being young. I don’t know what was in his head but I’m just glad he made our senior night a helluva one to remember.”

Boswell came in for Weitman with 15:36 left in the first half and didn’t take long to catch fire. He hit a 3-pointer with 13:48 left that gave UA a 17-9 lead and later went on his own personal 7-0 run to put the Wildcats ahead 27-12 with 10:30 left.

Boswell hit another three 3s after that, including a final one with 58 seconds left in the half that gave UA a 51-28 lead.

Basically, he led the Wildcats’ blitz through Oregon’s defense in the first half. Arizona shot 64.5% from the field before halftime, taking a 10-point lead after eight minutes and a 20-point lead after 13.

Oregon outscored UA by one in the second half while shooting 66.7%. Maybe that was a product of having the sort of early emotion and production that isn’t easy to sustain, but UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he and his players talked beforehand about not getting emotional but staying focused on the game plan.

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Instead, Lloyd said, they took too many “my shots,” those that aren’t in the best interests of the team, and simply flubbed it on the other end.

“We kind of struggled a little bit offensively and obviously Oregon didn’t struggle at all offensively,” Lloyd said. “The second half, our defense really struggled.”

Guard Jermaine Couisnard poured in 33 of his game-high 39 points in the second half to lead the Ducks, but even that outburst couldn’t help Oregon get closer than within 15 points in the second half.

As a result, the Ducks dropped to 19-10 and 11-7 in the Pac-12 and were eliminated from the conference race with a week to go.

The Wildcats are in position to clinch a share of the conference title if Washington State lost to UCLA later Saturday — or if UA beats UCLA on Thursday at Pauley Pavilion.

Love and Larsson each had 22 points to lead the Wildcats in scoring while Johnson added 21 on 8-for-10 shooting in typically high-energy style. Johnson’s 21 put him three points over the 1,000 mark for his college career, which began with four seasons at San Diego State before he transferred to UA last spring.

Johnson said he wasn’t really aware of how close he was to the mark but found it “perfect timing” to pass the threshold on Senior Day, while Larsson didn’t have it quite as fortunately.

Larsson has already scored 1,000 points in college, counting a freshman season at Utah in 2020-21, but his 22 points Saturday left him with 999 points as a Wildcat.

“A little bird whispered in my ear when I was getting close,” Larsson said. “I will still get it. And it was still an amazing night.”

Actually, it was just 3 p.m. when Larsson made that observation. But who could blame him?

All the Wildcats’ stars were shining, after all.

Photos: No. 6 Arizona wins 103-83 over Oregon, Pac-12 men's basketball