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 Guard Gabe York had 17 points and four 3-pointers in an 86-78
victory over No. 23 USC at McKale Center, as the Wildcats (21-5, 9-4
Pac-12) won their fifth straight and moved into a deadlock with No.
11 Oregon (20-6, 9-4) with three weeks to play.
The Trojans trimmed a 16-point halftime deficit to two with just
under seven minutes remaining before missing their next nine
field-goal attempts as the Wildcats extended their lead to
double-digits.
"I think we've established ourselves that we're good," Miller said.
"If we want more than that, if we want a real chance at this
regular-season championship, we can't do the things we just did in
the second half. Can't.
"We're going to run out of time."
Forward Ryan Anderson had 14 points and reserve forward Mark
Tollefsen had 13 points as the Wildcats avenged a 105-101,
four-overtime loss to USC on Jan. 9. That is longest game in NCAA
Division I this season and was part of a stretch in which the
Wildcats lost four of seven games.
Forward Bennie Boatwright had 18 points and guard Jordan McLaughlin
had 15 points for USC (18-7, 7-5), which has been swept on six of
its last seven Arizona trips. The Trojans lost at Arizona State on
Friday.
York's 3-pointer with 12 minutes remaining gave Arizona a 64-50
lead, but USC used an 18-6 run to close to within two points at
70-68 on McLaughlin's 3-pointer from the left corner with 6:43 left.
McLaughlin had three 3-pointers in that run and Boatwright had two.
But USC had only four free throws in its next nine possessions,
helping Arizona pull away. Guard Allonzo Trier's 3-pointer with 4:52
remaining made it 77-69, and guard Kadeem Allen's floater in the
lane pushed it to 79-69 with 3 1/2 minutes left. Trier suffered a
fractured right hand in the first meeting and missed seven games
before returning Feb. 6
"Every team makes a run," York said. "No matter if it is great
defense you're playing, they're going to make shots. But Coach
Miller is all about defense, and at some point they are going to end
up missing tough shots. We had a hand up. They started to miss
shots."
USC did not make another field goal until Boatwright's 3-pointer
with 33 seconds remaining made the score 84-75.
"We pride ourselves on 10 (four-minute) wars, and I think they had
gotten four wars in a row," said Anderson, who had six rebounds to
halt a streak of five straight double-doubles. "For us, we can't
control that, but we can control the next four minutes. We moved
past that moment. Coach puts the ball in Gabe's hands and lets him
run it up top, and he does a great job of mixing up the plays to
make sure we get a good shot."
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Guard Elijah Stewart had 12 points for USC and center Nikola
Jovanovic, the Trojans' leading scorer, had nine. Jovanovic had 25
points and 15 rebounds in a loss at Arizona State on Friday, the
first USC player in 21 years to reach those levels in the same game.
After scoring 30 points in the first half, USC scored 38 in the
first 13 1/2 minutes of the second half while making seven
3-pointers.
"We played very well in the second half," USC coach Andy Enfield
said. "We made shots and we defended at a very high level. Down the
stretch, we missed a lot of easy shots and they made a couple of
tough ones.
"To win on the road, especially in a place as tough to win as
McKale Center against a top-15 team in the country, you need to make
those shots in the last five minutes."
The Wildcats made 18-of-24 free throw attempts. USC was 5-of-11.
Tollefsen had 11 points in a 21-6 run that began with 11 minutes
remaining in the first half and helped Arizona take a 46-30 halftime
lead.
NOTES: Arizona G Gabe York's first basket of the game enabled him
to become the 50th player in school history to score at least 1,000
career points. He has 1,016. ... Arizona sophomore G Parker
Jackson-Cartwright started his second straight game at point guard
in place Kadeem Allen, who was ill and did not start an 81-75
victory over UCLA on Friday. ... USC entered Sunday with five of its
starters averaging between 12.8 and 11.7 points a game. ... With
three weeks remaining in the Pac-12 season, six teams are within one
loss of the league lead. The two leaders have four conference losses
and four teams have five losses. The top four finishers receive byes
in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament. ... Six Pac-12 teams
were in the NCAA RPI top 27 entering games of Sunday, including
Arizona and USC.
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