The USC Trojans host the Arizona Wildcats on Sunday afternoon in the Galen Center. They know they will be in for a battle.
USC’s identity is built on toughness and defense. So is Arizona’s. The Wildcats looked dead in the water at UCLA on Friday night in Pauley Pavilion, but they never gave up the fight. They trailed UCLA 61-50 with 4:49 left in regulation. All hope seemed lost for the school which reached the 2021 national championship game and narrowly lost to Stanford.
Arizona didn’t take the hint. The Wildcats refused to call it a night.
Coach Adia Barnes’ team didn’t allow another point in that final 4:49 of regulation. The Wildcats pieced together several scoring possessions and tied the game on a Lauren Fields 3-pointer with 1:08 left. Arizona got multiple defensive stops in the final minute and denied the Bruins on what could have been a game-deciding possession with three seconds left.
The U of A took the game into overtime, scored the first four points of the extra period, and hit four clutch free throws in the final 10 seconds for a 71-66 win over the stunned Bruins.
UCLA scored a total of five points in the last 9:49 of the game — 4:49 in regulation, all five minutes in overtime. Arizona’s crunch-time defense was simply phenomenal.
The result pushes UCLA to sixth place in the Pac-12. Arizona and USC are now tied for fourth behind first-place Stanford, second-place Utah, and third-place Colorado, which all won their Friday games. The winner of Sunday’s Arizona-USC game will have the inside track to a first-round bye at the Pac-12 Tournament.
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