Arizona Basketball shuts out So Cal Teams, Beat USC 86-78

Arizona Basketball closed out their LA revenge weekend on Valentines Day by dominating the Trojans after beating down the Bruins.

Whether you’re single or not, we can all celebrate a sweet Valentine’s Day. The Arizona Wildcats, with four players in double figures, closed out the LA weekend with their second revenge win at home, beating USC 86-78. With the win, Arizona is now tied for 1st place in the Pac-12 with Oregon.

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Gabe York, who humbly broke the career 1,000 point mark, led all Arizona players with 17 points. Ryan Anderson and Allonzo Trier both finished with 14 points, and Mark Tollefsen finished the night with 13 points, 11 in the first half. The last six minutes of the game was a close battle, even though Arizona led by as much as 19 at one point.

The first half has been difficult to watch for Wildcats fans 90 percent of the time this season. That wasn’t the case on Sunday night as Arizona came out looking to dominate, and that they did.

Ryan Anderson started off the night with a dunk with an assist by Trier. Dusan Ristic got in on the fun early as well with a 3-point play, and a dunk. Kaleb Tarczewski made his presence known on the block as well. The Wildcats wanted to make it a point from the get-go that they were the bigger, and stronger team.

Gabe York and Mark Tollefsen got in on the action to put Arizona up by 11 with about 12 minutes to go in the first half. USC was able to counter the Arizona’s offense, but after another run, and going up 36-22, USC was forced to call a timeout.

Gabe York hit an unreal deep three as the shot clock expired and 10 seconds remained in the half. Even though USC was able to score an uncontested floater at the end of the half, Arizona held a 46-30 lead.

With a 16 point lead at half, Arizona needed to finish strong. For most games this season, the team hasn’t completed a full 40 minutes. It appeared tonight was going to be different as Arizona was able to counter any USC attack that came their way. As Jacobs and Reinhardt scored for USC, Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright responded. At the first media timeout, Arizona was up 56-41.

Slowly the USC Trojans were cutting into Arizona’s large lead. At the 11:30 mark of the second half, the lead was cut to 64-52. It was at this time when we began to see the first half Wildcats disappear. They weren’t closing out on three’s tightly, they were leaving their man open and they were allowing USC to be more active. USC was hitting open 3-point shots, the ones they were missing in the first half.

We have known for several months now that Arizona’s defense isn’t as reliable as previous years. In those previous seasons, Coach Miller knew he could count on a stingy defense to win the game. This year’s team, to be successful in March, is going to have to use their offense as their best defense. As we saw down the dismal stretch last night, if the offense isn’t running smoothly, Arizona will see teams come back with a fury.

With just under 8 minutes remaining, USC cut the lead down to six, 68-62. With 6:40 remaining, McLaughlin hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two points, 70-68. To get to this point, USC outscored Arizona 23-9. Yes, 23 to 9. The Wildcats needed a response, and the leaders of this team stepped up.

Dusan and Zeus were able to hit clutch free throws, something that was a bit of a struggle against UCLA. Allonzo Trier, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half, had the biggest shot of the second half. With the time running down on the shot clock, he channeled his inner York and hit a huge three. After a Kadeem Allen drive, the two point lead quickly turned into a 9-1 run, putting Arizona up 79-69 with 3 1/2 minutes remaining.

In the end, Arizona walked away with revenge from the quadruple OT loss at USC back in January. USC went six minutes without scoring a point until 33 seconds were left on the  clock. It wasn’t pretty down the stretch, but Arizona got the must needed win this weekend. With the Los Angeles school sweep, and Oregon absolutely choking on their trips to Cal and Stanford, the team is back on top.

“We expect ourselves to be at the top and competing for the title. This is what we have done the last couple of years, this is what we plan to do this year,” said Ryan Anderson in the post-game interview,

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Since the devastating loss to Oregon, which ended the nations longest home winning streak, the Wildcats are on a 5-0 run. The other Arizona school comes to Tucson Wednesday night looking for the upset. You better believe that the Sun Devils will be coming in hot, but the Wildcats will be ready. They know what’s at stake now.

The Arizona Wildcats are the hottest team in the Pac-12. It’s time to prove it.