Arizona's March Madness run ends with loss to Clemson
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Arizona men's basketball team came into the postseason looking to redeem itself from a disappointing showing a year ago when it got throttled by Princeton in an opening-round game.
The No. 2 Wildcats seemed to have done that with a couple of impressive wins in the first two rounds this season but the run they were hoping would end at the Final Four in Phoenix got derailed by No. 6 Clemson 77-72 in the first West Region semifinal Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.
Clemson (24-11) led by as many as 13 but that came early at 29-16 and the Wildcats came back and only trailed at the half 39-31. The second half was tight for 20 minutes though. Jaden Bradley hit a 3-pointer to cut the Clemson lead to 72-70 with 49 seconds left.
Clemson answered at its end on a driving layup by Chase Hunter, who was fouled as well and made a free throw for a 75-70 lead with 25 seconds left and the Tigers hung on from there.
Arizona (27-9) hit 25 of 67 shots from the field and got a team-high 18 from Bradley while Oumar Ballo had 15 points and 15 rebounds.
More: Arizona's Tommy Lloyd questioned, slammed after Sweet 16 March Madness loss to Clemson
Clemson shot 29-for-59 from the field and 8-for-25 from deep. It got 18 points from Hunter and 17 from P.J. Hall.
It was almost a wire-to-wire win for Clemson which led for 37:05. Arizona had a lead for only 20 seconds.
It was just the fourth time the teams have played, with Arizona having won all three previous showdowns. It was the second time the teams met in the postseason, the other occasion was the first game between the teams which came in the second round in 1989 and Arizona won that behind the 25 points by Sean Elliott.
Let's take a closer look at the game:
What went right
Had the rebounding advantage: This is a place Arizona usually exels. It came in third in the country in rebounding margin at plus-10. It finished with a 44-36 edge on the boards, so not quite as dominant as usual. Ballo led all players with 15 while Keshad Johnson added 11, giving those two 26 of the team's 44. Rebounds were big reason Arizona finished with a 15-2 advantage in second chance points.
Weathered the storm early: The Wildcats had a poor first half but despite that they were in the game, eventually taking their first lead of the game at 46-45 on a bucket by Caleb Love five minutes into the second half. Arizona played a little better in the second half and at least had the chance to win the game down the stretch.
Points in the paint: Arizona had success when getting the ball in the post and it had a 40-30 advantage on points scored in the paint with Ballo a dominant force inside. Perhaps they should have gone to him more in there since the long distance shots weren't falling.
How it went down: Game updates from Arizona basketball's loss to Clemson
What went wrong
Three-point shooting: Overall it was the second worst shooting game of the season, the only one being worse coming in one of the losses to Washington State. Arizona went 5-for-28 (32%) from long distance which included an 0-for-9 by Pac-12 Player of the Year Caleb Love. Pelle Larsson was 1-for-6 and Kylan Boswell was 1-for-5.
Love had a bad night: Not only did he struggle from the perimeter, he struggled overall, going 5-for-18 from the field. He had just two rebounds, more turnovers (three) than assists (two). He finished with 13 points but really wasn't a factor in the game and certainly didn't fit the bill of a top player in the conference.
Field goal drought: The Wildcats went 10:11 seconds without a field goal in the second half. That was from the 14:32 mark until the 4:21 left when Jaden Bradley hit a jumper that closed the deficit to 65-61. The Wildcats were still in the game though and it probably didn't seem like they had gone that long without a bucket because there were 12 made free throws in that stretch. So Arizona was getting to the line.
Played into Clemson's strength: Clemson likes to play a slower, muck-it-up type of game while Arizona likes to get up and down the floor and it did finish with a 22-5 advantage in fast-break points. Arizona came in averaging 87.6 points a game, third in the country behind only Alabama and Kentucky. Clemson came in 78th in scoring, averaging 77.2. So check, Clemson did what it normally does.
Up next
Clemson advances to Saturday's West region final against No. 4 Alabama (24-11), an 89-87 winner over No. 1 North Carolina. The teams played early this season at the ACC-SEC Challenge with Clemson prevailing 85-77 on Nov. 28.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona's March Madness run ends with loss to Clemson
