Arizona men’s basketball saw their season and NCAA Tournament run come to an end last night in San Antonio in a 72-60 loss to the University of Houston in the Sweet 16. Here are some key stats from the game.
Dalen Terry shot 2-3 from 3-pt range
In a relatively poor performance overall from Arizona in their Sweet 16 matchup, Dalen Terry had the best individual performance on the team. Terry ended the game with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists. Terry began the season as mainly a defensive specialist as his jump shot was a question coming into the season.
His shot was still a work in progress coming into Arizona’s postseason run, but Terry began to find his shot in the Pac-12 Tournament. Since their first game of the Pac-12 Tournament against Stanford University, Terry has shot 9 of 17 (52.94%) from the 3-point range.
Terry has displayed great ball handling, passing vision and the ability to finish through contact at the rim so far in his time at Arizona. If he can develop his jump shot to round out his offensive game to go along with his established defensive ability, he can be a great player in the future.
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Arizona shot 33.3% from the field
Coming into this game Arizona was ranked No. 3 in the country in shooting percentage at 49.62%. However, that was not the case in their matchup against Houston. It did not matter if they were contested or open, nothing seemed to fall for them.
Arizona’s leading scorer this season, Bennedict Mathurin (17.8 PPG) had a rough night posting 15 points on 4-14 shooting. Out of the eight-player rotation that head coach Tommy Lloyd decided to play, only two shot over 50%. Terry had 17 points on 6-9 shooting and Pelle Larsson had 8 points and made 3 of 4 shots.
Houston outscored Arizona 19-13 on second-chance points
Despite Arizona’s height advantage and outrebounding the Cougars on the offensive glass 16-12, Houston was still able to convert more of these opportunities. Houston’s center Josh Carlton was the main reason the Cougars were able to get extra possessions as he pulled in five offensive rebounds.
Carlton, 6-foot-10, did a great job keeping Arizona’s center Christian Koloko, 7-foot-1, from getting any offensive rebounds. This advantage allowed Houston to stop every comeback attempt Arizona posted as the Cougars led wire to wire.
Arizona ends their season with a record of 33-4 in Lloyd’s first year as head coach after entering the season unranked and rose to the No. 2 team in the country. The Wildcats also became the Pac-12 Champions and won the Pac-12 Tournament.
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