Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Sean Millers 300th win will have to wait

Wildcats lost a heart breaker by one point in Berkley.

Head coach Sean Miller would have recorded his 300th career win, but that wouldn’t happen tonight as the No. 11 Arizona Wildcats basketball team lost to the Cal Bears 74-73.

Love him or hate him, UCLA legend Bill Walton provided the color on Saturday night. Bill’s son Arizona great and current Assistant Coach of the Golden State Warriors Luke Walton and his son were in attendance.

The game started with Bill Walton singing the praises of the Arizona Wildcats. He also pleaded with the refs to not call the game like the Stanford game, “I don’t want it to be ruined by refs I don’t want it to be ruined by fouls.” Ain’t that the truth! “Walton also added, “This is not T-Ball, this is about MEN.”

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Walton topped off his preamble with, “Arizona is the best team in the Pac-12.” We agree, Bill.

But enough about the announcers, there was a game going on. In the first half, it seemed that every time Arizona would pull ahead by five or six points, Cal would come back, and Jaylen Brown hit a three to end the half behind by only two going into the locker room.

By halftime, both teams had committed eight fouls and made 14 rebounds. The big difference was that Cal was left with two players in foul trouble with three each, Kingsley Okoroh and Kameron Rooks. Arizona shot 57% in the first half, and Anderson led the Cats with ten points.

Within seconds into the second half, Okoroh committed his fourth foul, but the first team to score was Cal. Cal’s Jabari Bird sunk a three to pull ahead by one point, their first lead of the game 38-37.

The Cats went cold, committed turnovers, and it wasn’t until 4:60 into the first half that Gabe York was able to score a nice layup, drawing a foul to boot.

The Cal Bears fans, not to be outdone by the Sun Devils Curtain of Distraction, printed big black dots on paper and moved them around in circles to confuse York on his free throw. Must have been a class assignment.

One thing was clear, Cal was shooting three times as many 3-pointers as Arizona and at one point, Cal had made six out of 17 and Arizona two out of five. You could say that was the difference in the game; lack of perimeter defense killed the Cats, but Arizona Wildcats never give up.

Cal kept fouling, and Arizona’s players made their free throws. Even so, the Cats were still behind by five points, 59-64. Then out of nowhere, Mark Tollefsen hit a huge three, his only bucket on the night, to bring Arizona within two. Then Cal called their last time out. You would have thought not having any time-outs left would be a big problem, but you would have been wrong.

Rooks fouled out with 3:20 left, leaving Kaleb Tarzcewski to make both his free throws, Cal was still ahead 66-64. We should add that Zeus had a strong game and was praised by all the broadcasters post-game.

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Arizona needed a stop. Kadeem Allen made a huge lay up on a turnover, but then Cal’s Jordan Mattews hit a big three. Mathews would turn out to be the star on the Bears team in this game. His three was followed by more Bears baskets.

For the Wildcats, Zeus was mauled a few times, and the refs didn’t blow their whistle.

Cal led by five with 1:06 to go and Miller took his last time out.

Wildcats fans hearts were pounding all over America; the Cats were down by five points.

But then, another Miracle was about to happen: Gabe hit a three and then Kadeem stole the ball and made his layup to tie the game. Unfortunately, on the next play, Zeus committed his fifth foul and walked back to the bench.

Cal’s Jaylen Brown hit the winning free throw; he made one out of two, but that was all she wrote as the ensuing possession ended with a missed layup by York. You could argue he was definitely fouled, but it would fall on deaf Pac-12 referee’s ears. They don’t seem to call fouls in the last five seconds of a game. Don’t remember there being a rule being added this season.

Cal won 74-73, one measly point. Arizona owned the first half, and Cal owned the second.

Matthews was on fire; he scored 28 points, made 10-17 FG’s and 6-12 3-pointers adding three rebounds and two assists. Cal shot 22 three’s vs. Arizona shot nine. One great stat to be proud of is the Cats collective free-throw percentage, 88 percent! Five Wildcats scored in double figures, and Parker dished six assists.

Instead of running down all the stats, we will just leave this here for you.

Sean Miller’s post-game comments on the IMG Sports Network Arizona with Brian Jeffries:

• “Both teams played hard, and Cal played harder.”
• “We had a couple shots at the rim that we didn’t get back..anytime they had that open look, and he made it.”
• “Both teams played hard, and Cal played harder.”
• “We had 11 turnovers which was acceptable, but six were in the second half.”
• “We fought back like we always do..a couple calls that you’ve got to shake your head at..I credit Cal for playing hard.”
• “11 turnovers, 15-17 from the line we shot 51 percent..I thought our turnovers led to 3-point shots…this was a dead-even game.  When a player like Jordan Matthews has a night like he had, we lost.”

We asked ZonaZealots fans why they thought the Cats lost the game tonight, and they answered. So, we included all their insightful responses:

The Cats are now 16-4 and coming back home to face the Oregon teams. Gabe York would like fans to support the team, he was loud and clear.

Next up, the Ducks are coming to Tucson, they just beat USC and UCLA, they have the highest RPI and Miller feels they may just be the best team they will play. The game tips off at 7:00 p.m. MST Thursday night January 28th at McKale.

If you are going to the game, it is a stripe out, you will need to wear red or white depending on where you are sitting. Stay tuned to @ZonaZooOfficial.

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BearDown Arizona! On to the next one.