This post was updated March 12 at 9:50 p.m.
LAS VEGAS — A corner 3-pointer from junior guard Johnny Juzang swished in, and for a brief moment, the crowd inside the T-Mobile Center quieted.
The Bruins were the possessors of a 12-point lead, their largest of the night over the Wildcats. They were just over 17 minutes away from winning the Pac-12 tournament championship, a trophy that has eluded Westwood since 2014.
But on the back of a 15-2 run for the next five minutes, No. 1 seed Arizona (31-3, 18-2 Pac-12) regained the lead, and it would cease to trail for the rest of the game in its 84-76 win over No. 2 seed UCLA men’s basketball (25-7, 15-5).
“Arizona was the tougher team down the stretch, that’s where the game was decided,” said coach Mick Cronin. “ They were more physical, (and) our defense left a lot to be desired.”
Spurred by two 3-pointers from Wildcat guards Bennedict Mathurin and Dalen Terry, the second-half run gave Arizona its first lead since there were just over seven minutes left in the first half.
The crowd’s volume turned up.
“ We may have been a little lackluster down the stretch and it showed,” said senior guard Jules Bernard. “They got easy buckets at the rim, and when you’re trying to make a run it’s demoralizing.”
With both of UCLA’s primary big men – redshirt senior center Myles Johnson and redshirt senior forward Cody Riley – having four fouls each midway through the final frame, redshirt junior forward/center Kenneth Nwuba was tasked with guarding the Wildcat bigs.
On Arizona’s next possession, center Christian Koloko was fouled by Nwuba on a shot down low but the shot rolled on the rim and sank to the bottom of the net. His free throw gave the No. 1 seed the lead.
“He gave up one and-1,” Cronin said. “Which is a cardinal sin for us.”
In Sin City, traveling Arizona fans paraded the streets of the Vegas Strip in the early afternoon, streams of red shirts meandering down Las Vegas Boulevard.
The sun set over the Nevada desert, and those same fans filed into the arena, making for a stadium where the number of Arizona fans vastly outnumbered those clad in UCLA blue.
When a whistle blew against their team, they were up in arms, a cacophony of boos raining down on the officials.
When the Wildcats went on a run, they were out of their seats.
And when their team erased a 12 point lead over the course of nine minutes, the “U of A” chants went around the building with a little bit more conviction than before.
“If you need a crowd to win games, you’re not going anywhere,” Cronin said. “ You’ve got no chance. If you’re not tough enough to deal with whatever the environment is, you’re not going to get anywhere as a team.”
The 15-2 Wildcat run was ended only by a 3-pointer from Bernard, however, an alley-oop flush from Koloko and a score from guard Pelle Larsson had the Arizona advantage back at five.
With five minutes remaining, the Wildcats hit four shots in a row, all of them coming from the paint. Junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was able to bring the game to as close as four points in the final three minutes, but a dunk by Koloko on the other end kept the Bruin deficit at six.
After leading UCLA in scoring for the past four consecutive games, Jaquez finished the night second with 18 points, outpaced only by Bernard who tallied 19.
Guarded by at least one of the two seven-footers on Arizona’s roster – Koloko and center Oumar Ballo – for much of the game, Jaquez said it was difficult to get shots off.
“I didn’t pass it out as I should have,” Jaquez said. “Just a couple times I went up, got blocked, should’ve passed it out.”
Junior guard Johnny Juzang hit 7-of-15 field goals after he averaged eight points on 34.3% shooting in the three games prior.
As the clock wound down, there was little the blue and gold could do to stop the Arizona offense. Seven of the Wildcats’ last nine buckets came in the paint.
Running in transition, Terry drove right at Juzang, who could only throw his arms vertically into the air as the Wildcat guard soared above him for a two-handed slam.
Three minutes later, Koloko secured a bullet pass from Larsson, dunked the ball over redshirt senior forward Cody Riley and wheeled away in celebration with his team leading by six.
On the other end of the floor, he swatted away a layup from Juzang with 50 seconds to go – the Bruins’ final gasp of the game.
UCLA fouled to prolong the inevitable. It was to no avail.
“They were the more physical team, they played much harder,” Cronin said. “I told our guys in the locker room, the only way we’re gonna learn from this is if we can look in the mirror and admit what happened. If we learn that lesson, then today will be worth it, but they taught us a lesson.”
The Wildcats continued to party and dance on the floor as the Bruins walked off. But what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
With Selection Sunday looming in less than 24 hours, UCLA will have one more opportunity to make a run, this time in the biggest dance of the year.
