Arizona pulled away from Arizona State in the final minutes to earn a 113-100 win on Tuesday night. Three Arizona players scored over 20 points and Alton Mason of Arizona State led all scorers with 33 points. Arizona State cut the deficit to 89-86 with 6:19 remaining before Arizona pulled away.
The win over Arizona State assures Arizona will finish no lower than third in the Big XII which clinches a double-bye to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. Arizona can finish as high as second in the Big XII if Texas Tech loses one of its two games. Texas Tech hosts Colorado on Wednesday and is at Arizona State on Saturday.
Arizona went on a 10-1 run and held Arizona State without a field goal for 2:32 to put the game away. Henri Veesaar led Arizona with a career-high 22 points and had eight rebounds. Caleb Love and K.J. Lewis each had 21, Tobe Awaka had 15 points and led Arizona with nine rebounds and Jaden Bradley had 12 points, four rebounds and seven assists.
Trey Townsend scored eight and Carter Bryant and Anthony Dell'Orso each scored eight points to close the scoring for Arizona. Arizona State finished with five players in double figures. The Sun Devils lost starting big men Basheer Jihad and Shawn Phillips who fouled out, hindering an already short-handed Sun Devils.
Arizona led 55-47 at halftime, and the teams outpaced the high-scoring first half. The Wildcats outscored the Sun Devils 58-55 in the second half. Arizona shot 59.0 percent, making 10 of its 23 three-point shots and 31-39 from the free-throw line. Arizona State shot 46.3 percent from the field, making 12-23 three-pointers and 26-31 free throws.
There were 46 fouls called on Tuesday night after the chippy game Arizona and Arizona State played last month in Tempe. Arizona outrebounded Arizona State 38-28, had a 25-12 edge in second-chance points and 50-19 in bench points. Arizona State had all four of its turnovers in the first half and Arizona had all six in the second half.
Arizona will finish the regular season at Kansas on Saturday with a 2:30 Mountain Time tip-off on ESPN. The first Big 12 Tournament game for Arizona will be on Thursday, March 13 at 4 PM MST if they are the number two seed and 6:30 PM MST if they are the three seed.