Eddy Meola
Arizona’s second annual “white-out” game was a wipe out for the Wildcats. A snow-white blanket of more than 14,000 rabid fans was not enough to propel Arizona to any kind of offensive consistency. It was Arizona’s third home loss of the season—all by four points or less. Washington shut down the Wildcat attack for most of the night. On defense, Arizona surrendered a glut of offensive rebounds, which led to 19 second-chance points for Washington.
Solomon Hill played his heart out, scoring 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in the losing effort. Hill made 9/10 shots from the field, but he was Arizona’s only offensive bright spot. Jesse Perry finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but only made 3/14 shot attempts.
The game followed a familiar story line for Arizona. Despite their struggles, the Wildcats came back from the brink to nearly force overtime. Arizona erased an 11-point deficit in the final three minutes only to lose in a more frustrating manner. After Hill sunk a deep three to tie the game with six seconds to go, disaster struck.
Washington inbounded the ball, and Arizona was immediately called for a blocking foul. Replays showed the defender had decent position, and the call could have gone either way. C.J. Wilcox—a 91% free throw shooter—made both attempts. Josiah Turner drove the ball for one last chance, but his lay-up was blocked. Despite some body contact, no foul was whistled and Nick Johnson’s follow dunk came less than a second after the buzzer.
Earlier in the half, Perry hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 41 with 13:44 to go. That’s when Tony Wroten Jr. sparked Washington to a big 12-3 run. The low point for Arizona came when Wroten lost the ball, recovered it short of half court, and turned around and launched the ball as the shot clock expired; the long-range bomb went down cleanly, giving the Huskies a 53-44 lead.
Arizona failed to respond to Washington’s run until the final minutes. Taking advantage of a few missed Husky free throws, the Wildcats trimmed an 11-point lead all the way down to two with just over a minute to play. Terrance Ross, however, calmly swished a long jumper to halt Arizona’s momentum. The Wildcats kept fighting to the end, and after Wilcox missed the front-end of a one-and-one, Hill tied the game with a deep three-pointer to set up the final, gut-wrenching sequence.
In the first half, Washington was the early aggressor despite the energy of a sold-out, white-clad, Arizona partisan crowd. Washington raced to a 14-7 lead before the 15-minute mark. The Wildcats committed several unforced turnovers while the Huskies owned the offensive glass.
Arizona regrouped and struck back with increased defensive intensity. Washington struggled to get good looks on offense, and Arizona turned it into transition points the other way. When Turner made a fast break lay-up at the 11-minute mark, the Wildcats had scored 10 straight to take a 17-14 lead.
Refusing to stay down long, Washington answered with an 11-3 spurt to retake control of the game at 25-20. Similar to the Wildcats, the Huskies asserted themselves on the defensive end. By constantly switching on ball screens, the taller Washington players limited Arizona’s perimeter shots. The Wildcats finally attacked the Husky defense with dribble penetration, resulting in a 9-2 run for a 29-27 lead.
Neither team scored much in the final three minutes, although Hill slammed down an emphatic put-back dunk at the buzzer for a 32-29 halftime lead. The put-back appeared to be offensive goal tending, but no whistle blew. Hill led the Wildcats at the break with nine points. Kevin Parrom added seven points, three rebounds, and two assists without a turnover. Turner scored eight, but coughed up the ball twice without an assist. As a team, Arizona had 10 first half turnovers.
After the game, a dejected-looking Hill answered questions from the press. He insisted that the issue is not how the Wildcats finish the game but everything in between. He said, “we shouldn’t have to fight back when we have the lead at the half…we need to do things to keep the lead.”
Sean Miller commended Hill, saying, “(Hill) had the best game he has played at U of A and I feel bad he can’t play a game like that on a winning note.”
Miller also commented on Parrom, who went down with a foot injury in the second half and did not return. Miller said, “(Parrom) played an excellent half and not having him hurt (the team)…our margin of error is razor-thin without him.” In response to Parrom’s terrible luck, Miller commented, “Sometimes life is not fair.”
Miller did not make any excuses, however, and asserted that “Washington (played like) the better team.”
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