Arizona Wildcats reach NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 with 78-68 win over Dayton Flyers in SLC

SALT LAKE CITY — The Arizona Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 on Saturday in a manner that suggests they just might keep going.

Despite a rough day for point guard Kylan Boswell, their defensive need to bench center Oumar Ballo at times and predictable runs from Dayton’s normally efficient offense, the Wildcats found a way to stay on top for the final 35 minutes of their 78-68 win over the seventh-seeded Flyers in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at the Delta Center.

Second-seeded Arizona built leads of up to 17 points in the first half and 15 in the second half and never trailed after the first five minutes despite Dayton runs late in the first half, early in the second and toward the end of the game.

“That’s how these games go,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We’ve been really talking about just being steady, staying locked in. Not getting too high, not getting too low.”

Throughout it all, the Wildcats showed the sort of versatility and resiliency that could help them reach their first Final Four in 23 years with a pair of wins next weekend in Los Angeles. The Wildcats (27-8) next will face the winner of a Sunday’s game between third-seeded Baylor and sixth-seeded Clemson in the NCAA West Region semifinals.

Instead of the high-flying offense that helped lift them to the nation’s No. 1 ranking earlier this season, the Wildcats mostly did it with defense this time. Dayton entered the game with the nation’s 11th-most efficient offense and third-best 3-point shooting percentage (40.3) but shot just 40.7% overall and 29.2% from 3-point range on Saturday.

“In basketball the key is always defense,” forward Keshad Johnson said. “You can’t always control what shots you can make but you can control making it as hard on your opponent as possible.”

Because of their defense, the Wildcats were able to win for the second time in the past four games despite scoring less than 80 points. They took points when and where they could get them: Caleb Love hit 3 of 5 3-pointers in the first half, while Johnson and Jaden Bradley each had nine points in the second half when Love cooled off.

Together, the Wildcats took a game that initially looked a lot like their Pac-12 semifinal loss to Oregon — when the Ducks roared back from UA’s 14-point first-half lead to win 67-59 — and turned it into a 10-point win.

“We learned from that experience with Oregon,” said Johnson, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. “We stayed poised but we also weren’t conservative. We just had to be smart. They pressed us. They were physical. But we liked that. We don’t want nothing easy.”

Arizona’s defense set the tone right away Saturday, holding the Flyers to 3 of 10 shooting over the first eight minutes while taking a 20-11 lead before the Wildcats went on to build leads as high as 17 points.

“I was hoping that we could really come out and get after them defensively and just play with a bunch of active energy and get them on their heels, and we did,” Lloyd said.

Then, when Dayton made comeback runs that started to look like how they erased a 17-point second-half deficit to beat Nevada in the first round Thursday, Arizona made two key adjustments.

Dayton’s pressure — and what appeared to be a minor hand injury to Boswell — limited the UA starting point guard’s effectiveness. So Lloyd gave reserve point guard Bradley 27 minutes off the bench, and he responded with 12 points, three steals and three blocks.

At the same time, once Dayton star big man DaRon Holmes started hitting outside jumpers, the Wildcats went with a smaller, more mobile lineup that often featured Johnson on Holmes.

“I guess my answer was just trying to contain him,” Johnson said. “He still got a couple of fouls calls on me and on other guards. But we just stuck with the game plan and made it hard.

“I’ve got the heart of a lion. Whatever it takes to win, I’ll do it.”

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Ballo, who had just eight points and three rebounds in 22 minutes, had no problem with that plan, even if it meant sitting out for 18 minutes.

“That’s what we do,” he said,. “Every single game, we have Plan A, B and C. and if we feel like we’re bleeding a lot on playing A, we go to plan B. If that’s not working, we go to plan C.”

The bleeding started looking pretty bad in the last few minutes of the first half, right about the time Holmes hit a 3-pointer to cut UA’s lead to 37-23 with four minutes left before halftime.

The Wildcats regained a 17-point a minute later, after Bradley hit a free throw and Motiejus Krivas scored inside, but Dayton then went on a 10-0 run at the end of the first half while the Wildcats turned the ball over four times in the final two minutes before halftime.

With 1:45 left, Holmes picked off an errant pass from Love, leading to a fast-break dunk from Dayton’s Enoch Cheeks, while Boswell turned the ball over with 49 seconds left, after which Koby Brea sank a 3-pointer.

UA led just 40-33 at halftime and it could have been even closer. Another UA turnover led to Dayton’s Javon Bennett spotting up in the right corner for a 3-pointer but it bounced off the rim at the buzzer sounded.

“The turnovers killed us in the first half,” Ballo said. “You cannot turn the ball over back-to-back-to-back. But the second half, we were able to adjust the pressure and take care of the ball.”

Bradley was a big reason why. The sophomore transfer from Alabama, who has been the Wildcats’ statistically most efficient player all season, broke through the Flyers’ defense to help the Wildcats cut down on turnovers and shoot a good-enough 42.9% after halftime.

Arizona had 11 turnovers in the first half but only four in the second.

“When we got into that press, I don’t think they handled the pressure too well,” Brea said. “We got on a run of our own. It was just hard to maintain, and I guess they figured some things out.”

The Wildcats not only figured out the Dayton pressure but also different ways to score other than Love, who led Arizona in scoring with 19 points. Love had five of UA’s first 10 field goals but made just 1 of 8 in the second half.

But Bradley and Johnson each had nine points in the second half, while Larsson added another eight, winding up with 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

They became, basically, a whack-a-mole for Dayton coach Anthony Grant.

“It’s not just Caleb Love,” Grant said. “He got away from us a few times early, and we know how talented of a guy he is. You can’t give him space. I thought we made it harder for him. … (then) some other guys were able to step up and make some big-time shots and big plays against the press.”

“They’re a really talented team.”

Photos: Arizona edges Dayton 78-68, NCAA Men's Tournament 2nd Round, Salt Lake City