UA takes big lead early, hangs on for Pac-12 win
Nearly two weeks after their 22-point lead evaporated in a loss at ASU, the Arizona Wildcats gave off the same sort of feeling Thursday.
In their 85-80 win over USC at McKale Center, the Wildcats took two leads of 20 points in the second half but watched them slip down to just a threepoint margin in the final minute. USC’s Daniel Utomi hit a 3-pointer to cut the Wildcats lead to just 81-77 with 29.7 seconds left and Jonah Mathews did the same to make it 83-80 with five seconds left, before Nico Mannion hit a pair of free throws with 3.7 seconds left to seal the Wildcats’ win.
The win moved Arizona to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the Pac-12, at their midpoint of league play. USC dropped out of the first-place loss column tie with UA and three other teams, to 17-6 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-12.
The win was UA coach Sean Miller’s 400th career victory, and he was briefly honored for it after the game.
The Wildcats next will face UCLA on Saturday in Tucson before traveling to play Cal and Stanford next week.
Arizona hung on despite making just one of its last nine field goals and hitting just 5 of 22 from 3-point range, while Mannion made just 12 of 18 free throws.
Because Mannion was able to get to the line often, he joined Zeke Nnaji with 18 points each to lead the Wildcats. Nnaji added 10 rebounds while Mannion had seven assists.
The Wildcats also helped themselves by scoring 18 points off 12 USC turnovers while only giving up six turnovers themselves. Guard Jemarl Baker extended his turnover-free streak to 119 minutes.
Leading 43-33 at halftime, Arizona and USC played each other evenly over the first four minutes of the second half. But UA then went on a 10-0 run to go ahead 61-41 with 13:31 left, getting two inside baskets from Nnaji, a 3 from Mannion and a dunk from Green, off his steal from USC’s Nick Rakocevic.
At that point, Arizona had scored 17 points off eight USC turnovers.