No. 2 Arizona Basketball escapes vs Stanford, but loses Kerr Kriisa

Las Vegas, NV – Kicking off the quarterfinals action in the Pac-12 Tournament, No. 2 Arizona Basketball (29-3, 18-2), escaped narrowly over Stanford. 

It wasn’t the prettiest or the most dominant win; however, it was a win nonetheless as No. 2 Arizona Basketball escaped with an 84-80 victory over Stanford to open the quarterfinals round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.

Despite Stanford shooting 32-59 (54.2 percent) from the field and 11-20 (55.0 percent) from three, the Wildcats were still able to escape a surging Cardinal team.

Led behind the 24 points and nine rebounds from Christian Koloko, and the 20 points from Bennedict Mathurin, together, both helped the Wildcats to escape in this one.

Despite always playing in front of an electric and pro-Arizona crowd in Las Vegas (aka McKale North), the Stanford hung tough, never making this one easy for Arizona.

And for every run No.  Arizona Basketball made, Stanford had a response, keeping this one close all game.

Arizona would start the game hot, jumping out to a 17-10 lead over the first six-plus minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, that would be their biggest lead in the first half as Stanford would respond with a big run of their own, keeping this one tight.

Stanford would take the lead at 32-30 with 5:13 to play, and would even extend their lead to 37-32 with 2:03 to play. Luckily, Arizona would close out the half on an 8-0 run as they lead 40-37 at halftime.

However, a back and forth second half would keep this one closer than we all would have liked to have seen.

Picking up right where they left off, Stanford would continue to keep their hot shooting hand, regaining the lead at 43-42, and continued their strong play in the second half as they led 52-49 with 15:42 left to play.

Arizona would regain control less than a minute later in the game as they led 53-52, and continued to bring the fight to Stanford in the second half as they led for most of it before Arizona would eventually escape with the 84-80 win.

However, the win didn’t come without a cost. In the waning moments of the game, Kerr Kriisa would go down, rolling his ankle on the foot of another Wildcats player. Kriisa would need help limping off the court.

And once again his injury proved how pointless the conference tournament is, as the loss of Kriisa potentially jeopardizes Arizona’s outcome in the NCAA Tournament.

So where does Arizona Basketball go from here?

With the win, Arizona improves to 29-3 (18-2) and they advance to the Pac-12 Conference Tournament semifinals and will return to action on Friday in Vegas when they take on Colorado

Watch the Wildcats as they came away with the win over Stanford!