Another heartbreaker.
With the Arizona men’s basketball team down by two points and with 5.9 second on the clock, freshman Josiah Turner drove through the lane and put the shot up but it was blocked. By the time fellow freshman Nick Johnson got the ball through the hoop, time had already expired. The Washington Huskies defeated Arizona 69-67.
“It was like the Oregon game all over again,” junior Solomon Hill said. “We got off to a slow start and came back in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.”
The Wildcats (14-8, 5-4 Pac 12 Conference) had climbed back from an 11-point deficit in five minutes and 35 seconds, but a foul called in the waning second of the game sent Washington’s C.J. Wilcox to the line with five seconds to go. Wilcox hit both his free throws, and Turner once again was not able to convert to tie the game up.
“The ref made the call and it sucks that it was with so little time left,” Hill said.
Hill had a career high game with 28 points and 11 rebounds, but his efforts weren’t enough to will Arizona to a win.
“Solomon Hill’s performance really brought us back in the end. He gave us the opportunity to get the win by how he played in the entire second half, and especially in the last 10 minutes,” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. “It was definitely his best game at Arizona and it’s only disappointing that we couldn’t get a win to go with it.”
The Wildcats struggled with taking care of the ball and limit Washington’s second chance shots. Arizona had 15 turnovers and allowed the Huskies to corral 18 offensive rebounds.
“When you’re playing with three guards and two forwards, you really can’t afford to turn the ball over,” Miller said.
Uncharacteristically, Arizona only attempted 13 3-pointers and only made four of them.
Arizona also suffered the loss of junior forward Kevin Parrom, who suffered a leg or foot injury in the first half.
“We’ll know more whether it’s his leg or foot we’ll know more in the next couple of days,” Miller said. “If he would have played that certainly would have helped us.”
Parrom had seven points and two assists in 10 minutes.
