Trailing by one with 15 seconds left, the Wildcats had the ball with a chance to upset No. 7 Stanford Saturday in McKale Center despite a few phantom calls.

But forward Chase Budinger’s runner just outside of the lane in the final seconds was blocked as the Cardinal (21-4, 10-3 Pacific 10 Conference) held on for a 67-66 win over the Wildcats (16-9, 6-6).

Stanford forward Taj Finger bodied Budinger a little on the drive, the type of call that had been made all half, before center Robin Lopez’s block, on which he may have gotten a bit of body as well.

“”Chase was supposed to get the ball and go to the rim and we just didn’t get the call,”” said UA guard Jerryd Bayless. “”The big man jumped into Chase and I guess the refs just weren’t looking at that last play.””

However, the refs more than looked at Stanford’s final play, when forward Brook Lopez drew a foul on UA center Kirk Walters although stadium replays showed Walters got all ball on the shot. Lopez made it hurt by calmly nailing the eventual winning free throws.

Fouls dictated the second half as both teams drew 13 apiece, with Bayless doing the bulk of that work for Arizona and the Lopez twins for Stanford. Because of that, the teams combined to shoot 37 foul shots in the second half.

During the whistle-happy half, it took UA forward Jordan Hill just over eight minutes of court time to foul out from the time he picked up his first foul three minutes into the half.

His final foul came eight seconds after sitting for 3:39 on a play in which he had his arms straight up after Robin Lopez charged into him, prompting “”F%$% the refs!”” chants from the student section and for Musburger to describe it as “”a terrible call.””

“”Some of the fouls I got were bad calls, but it’s the refs’ decision, I’ve got to respect them,”” Hill said. “”I was very frustrated. I wanted to be out there to help my team. It was just hard to watch them from the sideline.””

Added UA interim head coach Kevin O’Neill, “”It’s unfortunate Jordan fouled out because that put us in a position where we had no real inside scoring threat.””

Still, Bayless kept the Wildcats in the game with 31 points, his third straight 30-point contest, making him the first Wildcat in school history to enjoy such a run. While the rest of the team struggled, he scored 16 Arizona points in a row during a 12-minute period in the second half.

Then Budinger picked his game up down the stretch, as all 15 of his second-half points came after Bayless’ outburst starting with a 3 at the 7:23 mark.

Trailing 62-54 with four minutes left, five points from Budinger and a Jawann McClellan 3 tied the game before Budinger hit a free throw to cap the 9-0 run.

“”That’s one thing we’ve done this year well is if we got down to good teams we’ve been able to battle back and really get back in the game and make it close at the end,”” Walters said.

Although Budinger hit a clutch 3 after Brook Lopez put the Cardinal back on top, that lead was short-lived when Brook got the call on Walters.

“”Unfortunately we just didn’t have enough to finish it off today,”” O’Neill said.

And 1

Arizona struggled all afternoon on the boards, getting outrebounded, 40-26.

Check back Monday for more coverage of the game.