Wildcats swept by Cardinal in Tucson

Their 20-game win streak over Stanford snapped last month, the Arizona Wildcats wound up getting swept by the Cardinal for the first time in 13 seasons Thursday at McKale Center.

Jaiden Delaire led the short-handed Cardinal with 21 points to lead Stanford to a 73-64 win over Arizona. James Akinjo led UA in scoring with 17 points while Terrell Brown had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

While UA stayed in the game thanks to a streak of five 3-pointers over a sixminute stretch midway through the second half, Stanford willed its way inside repeatedly while going on a 15-2 run to take over at the end.

The loss dropped Arizona to 12-4 and 6-4 in the Pac-12, dealing a huge blow to the Wildcats’ hopes of winning the Pac-12 regular-season title while also snapping a three-game winning streak.

Stanford improved to 10-5 and 6-3, having swept Arizona for the first time since the 2007-08 season. The Cardinal had lost 20 straight to Arizona before beating the Wildcats 78-75 on Dec. 19 in Santa Cruz and had never beaten a Sean Miller-coached team before then.

Down 33-29 at halftime, Arizona tied it at 35 after Terrell Brown scored twice in a row within 45 seconds early the second half. Bennedict Mathurin, returning from a sprained ankle suffered Monday against ASU, hit a 17footer from the right corner to later cut Stanford’s lead to 39-37 before adding one of what were five UA 3-pointers over less than six minutes.

The last of the five threes, by Terrell Brown in the left corner, which Dalen Terry had also hit from twice, put Arizona ahead 57-52 with 7:35 left.

UA was shooting 56.3% overall in the second half and had made 5 of 8 3s.

But it went downhill quickly from there for the Wildcats. Stanford went on a 15-2 run over the next six minutes to take a 67-59 lead, scoring inside on layups or picking up fouls, while Spencer Jones threw in a 3-pointer.

The Wildcats never recovered from that point. Arizona wound up shooting just 39.3% in the second half while Stanford shot 54.2% after halftime.