Arizona Basketball: Pac-12 Regular Season Champions

The Arizona Wildcats were able to pull away late from the California Golden Bears 66-54 to come away as Pac-12 Regular Season Champions.

Mentally tough. With everything this team has been through this season, they got one more test at the end of the season. Facing the last place team in the Pac-12, the California Golden Bears, the Arizona Wildcats were a 17.5 point favorite entering the last game of the season. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, their opponent would give the Wildcats their best shot. But in the end, the Wildcats were too much to handle!

Shots weren’t falling, and turnovers were aplenty, but the Wildcats were able to stay mentally tough to become the 2018 regular season Pac-12 champs!

After an emotional win on Thursday against the Stanford Cardinals, the Wildcats were looking to feed off that momentum against the Bears on Senior Night. Dusan Ristic, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Keanu Pinder and Talbot Denny would be playing their last night in McKale Center. Also, the Wildcats had even more motivation as a win would make them the outright Pac-12 regular season champs.

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Once again the Wildcats got out to a great start, leading 10-2, four minutes into the game. The Bears though didn’t back down and were able to withstand the early onslaught by the Wildcats. So much so that they ended up taking a one-point lead at around the 12-minute mark in the first half.

Rawle Alkins proved to be the spark in the early on with the team’s first basket and it was a beautiful three-pointer. With plays like this was the start of a 6-0 run to extend the lead for the Wildcats:

Of course, you can’t talk about the first half of Wildcat basketball with mentioning the play of Deandre Ayton. In most likely his last game at Mckale Center and the potential No.1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Ayton had a historic 20 minutes of basketball. He became the Wildcats All-Time freshman leading scorer with this three-pointer. Ayton also is the 2nd center to score 600 points and also recorded his 21st double-double, 14 points, and 11 rebounds- all in one half!

The Bears though would continue to make it exciting, ending the half on a 7-0 run and find themselves only down three at the half. Wildcats in the second half would continue to struggle on both ends of the floor but were able to find a way to get it down in the end.

As they have all season long, once this team goes on one of their runs it’s over for the other team. That’s what happened tonight. Allonzo Trier didn’t score until the last couple minutes of the game off a steal and layup which lead to an 8-0 and seal the deal for the Wildcats and earn their 13th regular season Pac-12 title!

As the game was winding down, Coach Sean Miller took out Ristic from the game, who went out in legendary status!

Up next? The Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas. The Wildcats will be the No.1 seed, have a bye in the first round and play the winner of Colorado vs Arizona State. The game is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 8th on the Pac-12 Network. Time to TBD.

Keys to victory

• Even though the team shot 38.8% from the field and 27.8% from 3-point range, they were able to find other ways to score. From the foul line, they went 23-26.
• Outrebounded their opponent 39-29.
• Alkins stepped up big time. He had 15 points, two rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block in 33 minutes of play.
• When things weren’t clicking offensively and one of their top scores Trier was having an off night, this team did not panic and found a way to win, and Trier hit his first basket at a key time.

Full highlights of the Wildcats victory over the Bears:

Coach Miller shared his thoughts on tonight’s game, “We fought, and scratch clawed all the way. Very gratifying to do it, especially at home in front of our amazing fans. Couldn’t imagine any area, this weekend couldn’t have more pageantry, more electricity then McKale Center.”

The Wildcats ran through the Zona Zoo and got high-fives from all of their fellow students. The crowd celebrated the five seniors (Keanu Pinder, Dusan Ristic, Tyler Trillo, Talbott Denny and Parker Jackson-Cartwright) and three players not returning to Arizona and moving onto the NBA (Rawle Alkins, Allonzo Trier, and Deandre Ayton).

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Pac-12 Regular Season Champs! That’s what I’m talking about!. So many counted this team out after they lost three straight in the Bahamas. Now, look. From where this team started to now, Zona Zealots couldn’t be happier in what this team has accomplished. Let the fun begin. Make sure to stay up to date with all the Wildcat postseason action right here at Zona Zealots. Bear Down!