Washington made a last second buzzer-beater off of a blocked shot to beat Arizona men’s basketball 78-75 and drop the Wildcats to 19-5 and 9-2 in the Pac-12 Saturday in a sold out Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Deandre Ayton tied the game at 75 with 00:22 to go and then blocked Husky guard Jaylen Nowell on the other end. The blocked shot flew straight into the waiting arms of Dominic Green, who rose up from the corner and ended Arizona’s seven game win streak at the buzzer.
The game moved Washington into third place in the Pac-12 (7-3) and 17-6 overall.
The Wildcats were down 14 less than three minutes into the second half, but rallied with a 13-1 run and then overcame a 6-0 Washington run to tie the game midway with 8:55 to go in the second half. From there it was a back-and-forth battle with eight lead changes and six ties the rest of the way.
Arizona shot 2-12 from 3-point range while Washington made 57 percent, 8-of-14, from three. The Wildcats initially started the game off 3-for-10 from the floor but finished the game shooting 50 percent, just above Washington’s 48 percent.
Husky forward Noah Dickerson led the game with 25 points and seven rebounds. Arizona had a difficult time guarding him under the basket, even double-teaming him without success.
For Arizona, Dusan Ristic led the way with 21 points while Allonzo Trier followed with 20. Deandre Ayton posted another double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds as well as blocked the shot that gave Washington the chance to win.
Rawle Alkins returned to the starting lineup for the first time since he sat out with soreness in his foot. He missed three out of the last five games after feeling pain in the foot he broke during the pre-season. Alkins finished with four points and shot 2-for-11 and 0-of-3 from deep.
In the first half Arizona got off to a slow start. The Wildcats trailed the Huskies by as much as nine before taking a seven point deficit into halftime. Throughout the half, Arizona shot the ball 36 percent from the floor and 1-of-6 from 3-point range.
For the first 30 minutes of the game, the Wildcats looked slow and confused against the Huskies zone defense, as well as gave up easy shots under the basket and let the Huskies shoot contested shots from 3-point range.
During the game, the officials made several questionable calls that went against Arizona. One of them came when Deandre Ayton appeared to get slapped on the wrist and have the ball knocked out of his hands. The officials called it off of Ayton and gave possession to Washington. Arizona head coach Sean Miller protested angrily until he was rewarded with a technical foul.
Arizona returns home to play UCLA Thursday at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN at the McKale Center.
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