LAS VEGAS — After all the taunts from the Arizona fans, the repeated “U of A!” chants that filled an arena awash in red and white, UCLA wanted the final say.
The Bruins looked like they might get it early in the second half of the Pac-12 tournament championship. Their shots were falling and they matched the Wildcats’ toughness while not letting their size disadvantage bother them. When UCLA’s Johnny Juzang buried a three-pointer, extending his team’s lead to 12 points, what amounted to a home crowd for the Wildcats was silenced.
The decibel level then rose, slowly at first, before building to a crescendo with a flurry of Arizona layups and three-pointers. Meanwhile, the Bruins went cold and their primary two big men couldn’t do much to stop the avalanche of points they were giving up while stuck on the bench in foul trouble.
Arizona rode the momentum for an 84-76 victory, the top-seeded Wildcats pulling away from the second-seeded Bruins for their first Pac-12 tournament championship since 2018 in a game featuring Final Four intensity.
With UCLA (25-7) trying to rally in the final minute, trailing by only four points, three plays illustrated the Wildcats’ superiority. Juzang drove before his shot met the outstretched arm of Christian Koloko, the Wildcats’ 7-foot-1 center and was swatted away. On UCLA’s following possession, Koloko blocked a Jules Bernard three-pointer.
Finally, Koloko blocked a three-pointer by Cody Riley in the final seconds before racing to snatch the rim in celebration on the other end of the court. Koloko finished with four blocks and Oumar Ballo, another 7-footer, had six for the Wildcats (31-3).
After averaging 24.8 points over his previous four games, UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. was considerably less effective against Arizona’s supreme length. One sequence midway through the second half illustrated the challenge confronting Jaquez when he made a nice post move only for Ballo to block his shot. Jaquez, who finished with 18 points while making six of 17 shots, had another shot blocked by Koloko with 11/2 minutes left.
Bennedict Mathurin finished with 27 points for Arizona, which is assured of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. UCLA was unable to elevate its position after most bracket analysts had projected the Bruins as No. 4 seed before the game.
They looked like they might be on the verge of boosting their stock early in the second half.
After UCLA’s Jules Bernard absorbed an elbow to the face from Koloko and was awarded two free throws, the Bruins appeared ready to deliver a knockout blow. Their lead reached 53-41 when Juzang buried a corner three-pointer.
But Arizona wasn’t about to go quietly, the Wildcats making two three-pointers while rolling off eight straight points. UCLA then found itself turning to seldom-used forward Kenneth Nwuba after Johnson picked up his fourth foul with 13:05 left, joining Riley on the bench with the same predicament.
The Wildcats went on another surge, scoring the next seven points to go ahead 56-55 on Koloko’s three-point play after he was fouled on a layup and made the resulting free throw.
The teams split their meetings during the regular season, UCLA holding Arizona to a season-low 59 points in a victory at Pauley Pavilion and the Wildcats prevailing in a heated rematch at the McKale Center. Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa ended that game by hurling the ball into the stands before Bruins forward Mac Etienne allegedly spit at students who had chanted obscenities, leading to an assault charge against Etienne.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin barred Etienne from attending the next nine games before allowing him to retake a spot on the bench last week. A few minutes before tipoff Saturday, Etienne calmly emerged from a tunnel inside the arena and walked past the Arizona students and band while tossing a yellow ball into the air.
Arizona fans in a crowd dominated by red and white targeted the Bruins nearly an hour before tipoff, one yelling “Tyger, get a haircut!” from the second row near midcourt. UCLA students tried to make the Bruins feel like they were back at home, unleashing a pregame roll call.
Kriisa watched the game from the bench after suffering a sprained right ankle in the final minute of Arizona’s quarterfinal victory over Stanford two days earlier.
Arizona gave its fans reason to roar at the first timeout, repeatedly attacking the paint to take a 10-4 lead. There were layups and a dunk and a jump hook as the Wildcats relied on their size advantage. Cronin responded by inserting freshman guard Peyton Watson for his defensive length, which helped end the burst of easy points.
But there was another move to make after Arizona’s Dalen Terry drove the lane for an unimpeded layup, Cronin hurrying over to sophomore guard Jaylen Clark to tell him to enter the game for some additional defensive resistance.
In a good sign for the Bruins, Juzang recaptured his shooting form after some recent struggles in his return from a sprained ankle. The junior guard made a baseline jumper and a tough turnaround jumper that he followed by tying up Koloko in front of the Bruins bench for a held ball that went to UCLA.
Arizona fans were lived when UCLA’s Jaquez appeared to bump Wildcats counterpart Azuolas Tubelis on a driving layup, only for the foul to be called on Tubelis. But Tubelis quickly got some revenge when he drove the lane for a ferocious one-handed dunk.
The final highlight of the first half belonged to Juzang, who took an inbounds pass with two seconds left and rose for a three-pointer that pushed the Bruins into a 40-35 lead. Juzang snarled and shimmied before celebrating with his teammates on their way to the locker room.
The cheering would soon belong exclusively to the Wildcats.
