KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arizona guard Jaden Bradley had just emerged from the locker room, his left wrist tightly taped after a collision left him holding it in pain. Koa Peat was mired in foul trouble, and Houston was making a big run in the Big 12 tournament title game
All season, the second-ranked Wildcats had demonstrated their talent.
On Saturday night, they proved their resilience.
Brayden Burries broke out of a slump with 21 points, including a pair of clinching free throws with 8.3 seconds left. Peat also had 21 points, and Bradley, who hit the semifinal winner against Iowa State, finished with 13 as Arizona held on for a 79-74 victory over the fifth-ranked Cougars in a rematch of last year’s championship game.
“They’re just resilient, you know? And they just have this unbreakable spirit,” Tommy Lloyd, the Big 12 coach of the year, said of his Wildcats. “These guys do an amazing job of figuring it out in tough moments.”
It’s a talent that should serve the Wildcats (32-2) well going into next week’s NCAA tournament. They’ve won nine straight since their only two losses of the season, and six of those wins have come against ranked opponents.
“We got in the Big 12, and I learned real quick we were looking up and chasing a program, and it was Houston,” Lloyd said. “And not that we were fixated on the chase, but it gave us a great barometer for what we felt we had to do in our program.”
The Wildcats, who lost to the Cougars 72-64 in their Big 12 title game debut a year ago, led 75-66 with just over a minute left Saturday night before Mercy Miller and Milos Uzan hit 3s on consecutive possessions to give Houston a chance.
But when Peat missed a jumper with 22 seconds to go, Arizona big man Motiejus Krivas gathered the rebound and was fouled under the basket. The 7-foot-2 junior from Lithuania calmly made both free throws to extend the Wildcats’ lead.
Kingston Flemings and Miller missed layups at the other end for Houston (28-6), and by the time Miller was fouled and made two free throws, there were just 13.2 seconds to go. Burries was fouled on the inbound pass and sealed the win.
“You had the two best teams in the Big 12 fighting down the stretch. Either team could have won the game,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Sometimes, it comes down to a break. Sometimes, it comes down to a whistle. Sometimes, it comes down to a bounce. When two teams are evenly matched like they were today, that’s what it comes down to.”
The championship matchup — one befitting of a Final Four — was close throughout the first half until Burries, who had missed 11 straight shots going back to a quarterfinal win over UCF, finally got hot for Arizona. The All-Big 12 guard hit four in a row late in the first half, scoring the Wildcats’ last 10 points and giving them a 44-36 advantage at the break.
They stretched the lead to 15 points in the second half as the game became more physical.
In a span of a few minutes, Bradley hurt his wrist in a collision and briefly went to the locker room. Peat was slow getting up after he was hammered on a shot. And during a scrap for a loose ball, five players hit the floor, and when a jump ball was finally called, Burries and Houston forward Kalifa Sakho lay on the court unwilling to let go.
Houston was still trailing 59-44 when it finally went on its big run, scoring 14 straight points and nearly drawing even.
But the unflappable Burries answered with a three-point play, Ivan Kharchenkov scored on three straight trips down the floor for the Wildcats, and they regained just enough breathing room to survive all the way to the finish.
“Arizona is really good,” Sampson said. “If Arizona had lost to Houston, I’d have said the same thing. ‘Arizona lost to a really good team. There’s no shame in Arizona losing to Houston.’ And I’ll say the same thing the other way. Arizona is really good.”
Houston will likely be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and play first- and second-round games in Oklahoma City. Perhaps more importantly, the Cougars would play their regional semifinal in Houston should they advance.
Arizona should have a short trip to San Diego for its opening weekend games in the NCAA tournament. If the Wildcats advance, the projected No. 1 seed would head up the coast to San Jose, California, for the second weekend.
