Who doesn’t love a good ol’-fashioned best of three? Not only was a season series victory on the line in Saturday’s matchup between No. 1 seed UCLA and No. 2 seed Arizona, but also possible redemption from last season, a potential top seed in the NCAA tournament and, of course, some hardware.
In the end, Arizona successfully defended its Pac-12 Tournament championship, as fifth-year guard Courtney Ramey’s late three lifted the Wildcats to a 61-59 win in an extremely entertaining contest start to finish.
“I kept telling myself the next shot was going in,” Ramey said. “My job was to make a play, so I was grateful for the shot to go in.”
In a matchup between the Pac-12 Player of the Year and the conference’s leading scorer and rebounder, Arizona junior forward Azuolas Tubelis held the advantage early on. He frequently found himself at the line or with an easy layup for the Wildcats, compared to a 1-for-7 start from the field by UCLA senior guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. With the Bruins missing their starting forward — freshman Adem Bona, who sustained a shoulder injury Friday against Oregon — Tubelis feasted on his matchup against redshirt senior forward Kenneth Nwuba, who made just his third start of the season.
Meanwhile, UCLA relied on its other stellar guards to stay right in the game. Freshman guards Amari Bailey and Dylan Andrews made their first five shots combined, while redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell converted a layup plus the foul to give the Bruins a 21-20 lead. Jaquez eventually got things going too, with an and-one of his own to put UCLA in front again a few minutes later.
Arizona’s frontcourt tandem of Tubelis and redshirt junior center Oumar Ballo were both in foul trouble late in the first half, obtaining two fouls each. That helped soften the loss of Bona for UCLA, allowing it to play with a small-ball lineup while Tubelis and Ballo both sat.
A tightly contested and endlessly exciting first half ended with a narrow 34-33 Bruin advantage. Tubelis starred with 16 points, including 6-for-7 shooting from the line, plus six rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. However, UCLA limited the rest of the Wildcats’ starters to just two points.
“We’re built to play a lot of styles,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “[UCLA is] perfectly comfortable … dictating the tempo, and then they’re just so good defensively. It’s hard to score on them quickly.”
The Bruins came out of the break strong, with a 9-2 run to start a second half that was just as intense and entertaining as the first. Arizona was creating open threes and getting second chances on offensive rebounds, but it simply couldn’t cash anything in. Tubelis was held silent in the latter period, with just three points on 0-for-7 shooting, but he was still named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
But, the Wildcats turned around the foul-trouble tables in the second half. Both Nwuba and redshirt freshman forward Mac Etienne picked up their fourth fouls with over 12 minutes remaining, as Arizona constantly fed its dominant big men on offense. So even though UCLA led by five points, the game’s momentum seemed to favor the defending Pac-12 Tournament champions. Etienne fouled out two minutes later, leaving the Bruins dangerously thin in the frontcourt for the remainder of the game.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Las Vegas began to get loud in support of the Wildcats. As has been the case all week in Las Vegas, Arizona fans showed up in full force Saturday night and easily made up a majority of the T-Mobile Arena crowd. Endless “U of A” chants started to rain down, quickly strengthened by a go-ahead three from junior guard Pelle Larsson. As Arizona’s starting guards struggled, Larsson provided a vital 11 points off the bench as well as some lockdown defense of Jaquez.
“Pelle might have played his best game at Arizona,” Lloyd said. “I think that helped Oumar get going a little bit and helped them get in massive foul trouble with [UCLA’s] bigs.”
Nevertheless, Bailey and Campbell kept UCLA afloat, even when Nwuba also fouled out with 4:27 remaining. Now in a tie game, the Bruins had to go back to their small-ball lineup out of necessity for the remainder of the night. A Bailey jumper with under three minutes left put UCLA back ahead 58-56, giving the star freshman 19 points for the game.
In the first instance that two teams have played in the Pac-12 Tournament final in consecutive years, UCLA and Arizona demonstrated exactly why they are currently the two premier programs in the conference. Even with the Wildcats’ massive frontcourt advantage on paper, the Bruins continued to battle and keep the lead. Jaquez forced a steal with just over a minute to go to keep his team up a point, as Arizona still couldn’t penetrate the UCLA defense.
But it was just a matter of time before the Wildcats broke through. Despite having not made a shot all night, Ramey drilled a three after an offensive rebound by Larsson, sending T-Mobile Arena into a frenzy with 18 seconds left. When Campbell went to the line with six seconds to go, the place only got louder, prompting a miss on the latter free throw that would have tied it.
UCLA had one more shot to win it — an open look for three from the left wing by Andrews — but the attempt missed long to give Arizona a wild win and the Pac-12 Tournament title in an absolute classic.
Both teams will find out where they fit into the NCAA tournament bracket on Sunday, as each projects to be a high seed with a chance to advance deep into March Madness.
“We have a group that’s built to play in this tournament we’re about to start,” Lloyd said. “There’s no guarantees and you can’t make any assumptions, but I like our ability to win game-to-game.”