Heartbreak city for TCU basketball.

The Horned Frogs had 1-seed Arizona on the ropes late with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, but couldn’t deliver the knockout punch in what became an 85-80 overtime loss on Sunday night at Viejas Arena.

“It hurts,” TCU sophomore guard Mike Miles said. “We deserve to win that game and we didn’t win.”

TCU (21-13) and Arizona (33-3) exchanged blows all night in an instant March Madness classic. Every time it felt like the Wildcats were on the verge of pulling away, the Frogs answered.

TCU’s biggest answer came with eight minutes left. Arizona used an 8-0 run to build its biggest lead of the night, 67-58.

The Frogs responded with a 12-0 run, taking a 68-67 lead on a driving layup by Miles with just over four minutes left. TCU extended that lead to 70-67 when Miles made a couple free throws with 3:39 left.

But Arizona didn’t go away. The Wildcats made clutch shots down the stretch, highlighted by a deep 3-pointer by Bennedict Mathurin to tie the game at 75-75 with 12.9 seconds left.

“Ben’s not afraid of the moment,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “He’s a special player who has an ability to rise it up another level when needed. He has that clutch gene. I honestly felt really good when he had the ball in his hands there because I knew he was going to shoot a 3. I’ve seen him make that — the ball in his left hand enough times. Right when he snapped the 3 off to tie it, it was pretty impressive.”

Still, TCU had a chance to win it in regulation but Miles found himself trapped near midcourt by Arizona’s Christian Koloko and Dalen Terry. Miles lost control of the ball after heavy contact with Terry, who almost had a game-winning dunk at the buzzer but got it off after time expired.

“I wouldn’t say it was not a foul, but it was a foul,” Miles said. “They didn’t call it. That’s what it is.”

Said Koloko: “We knew he was going to try to be a hero and we wanted to trap him. He turned the ball over. That’s what we wanted to do and it worked.”

TCU led once in overtime, 77-76, after a second-chance layup by Emanuel Miller with 3:19 left, but Arizona scored the next five points to take an 81-77 lead with two minutes left. The Wildcats stayed in front the rest of the way, sealing the victory with a putback dunk by Koloko with nine seconds left.

The Frogs had two players foul out in overtime, Micah Peavy and Emanuel Miller, and were battling foul trouble with Miles and center Eddie Lampkin down the stretch.

Mathurin finished with a game-high 30 points, while Koloko added 28 points for the Wildcats.

TCU’s Chuck O’Bannon Jr. led the Frogs with a career-high 23 points, knocking down five 3-pointers on the night. Miles finished with 20 points, while center Eddie Lampkin had 20 points and 14 rebounds.

“This season was everything for us because we weren’t even expected to be here,” O’Bannon said. “For us to win our first game and be that close with the No. 1 seed just shows that we have a bunch of guys with a lot of grit. That’s all you can ask for.”

For TCU, it’s a disappointing end to a historic season for the program. The Frogs were making just their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and ended a 35-year drought between March Madness victories by crushing Seton Hall, 69-42, on Friday night.

TCU also set program records for most ranked wins in a season and drew record crowds to Schollmaier Arena.

“As I told the guys in the locker room, how proud I was of this team, what they had become,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “They became a team, a unit that was unbelievably close. They do everything together. And it’s just a fun team to be around. Very outgoing. Love being on campus. Love the college experience. Love being part of the student body. And I just can’t thank them enough. I’m so proud of them.

“I told them they made millions of fans tonight by watching this game. And the challenge now is to handle it the right way after this loss. Certainly a lot of questions will be asked, but we’ll handle it the right way and do the right things because that’s what they’ve done all year long. So very proud of them. And TCU, I know, is proud of this team.”

Arizona advances to the Sweet 16 where it’ll face 5-seed Houston on Thursday night in San Antonio.

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