Arizona Basketball

Gotta have Love – on a Fling and a Prayer

Caleb Love has scored 2,437 points in his career and no points have been bigger than 2,426, 2,227 and 2,228.

Nothing.

Those three points – coming on a fling and a prayer 3-pointer – were what kept Arizona surviving deep into the Monday night, getting UA into overtime and eventually giving it the 86-75 win in frenzied McKale Center.

“Best moment of my life,” Love said on the moment he hit his 55-foot (ish) bomb as time expired in regulation to make it 71-71. “You just gotta give credit to God. It obviously wasn’t going my way throughout the game, and you gotta trust your work. Stay confident in your work. Stay confident in yourself. And it ain’t over until it’s over.”

Hardly.

It prompted coach Tommy Lloyd to think, “holy shit” when it went in.

“I don’t know the odds of that shot going in,” ISU coach T.J. Otzelberger said.

In overtime, Arizona, riding the high and long past its lows, outscored Iowa State, 14-5, the next five minutes to secure win 14 (14-6 overall) and No. 8 (8-1) in the Big 12 Conference.

Arizona sits in second place – who would have thought that a month ago? – in the Big 12 behind Houston, who pulled off a similar miracle over the weekend in defeating Kansas.

Tommy Lloyd said it was “too early” to talk about the conference race, given there are so many games left.

“We’re going to celebrate this one,” he said. “It was a great moment for Arizona basketball, and we’re going to celebrate that. I mean, our guys deserve it. Hasn’t been an easy year, but we’re trending in the right direction, so I’m thankful we found a way to get over the top.”

It was one of the most improbable wins in McKale history, given the circumstances. Henri Veesaar hit the first of two free throws with four seconds to make it 70-68. He purposely missed the second to give Arizona a chance to get a rebound and put back. Instead, UA didn’t get the rebound but fouled Joshua Jefferson, who proceeded to miss the first free throw and hit the second with 2.5 seconds left.

That’s when Love’s heroics kicked – um,  shot – in. He took the inbound pass took three dribbles and heaved it up … and it went in. He had been 1 for 10 to that point on 3s for the game. He proceeded to hit two more 3s in overtime to get hot.

He said it felt good “when it left my hands.”

Love can still be labeled a dangerous, inconsistent weapon.

“Every shot felt good,” Love said. “You just got to laugh if off because I make so many shots in practice and workouts, in games even. You just got to smile it off and embrace it, because my teammates believe me. I believe in myself. And like I said, you just got to have the utmost confidence in yourself that the next one is going in.”

How does a guy go from zero to 100 – miss, miss, miss – then go hit, hit hit?

Photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics.

“I trust my work. I put so much work in the gym, late nights, early mornings, and I believe in myself. I believe that every shot is going in. Every shot I feel like was, it felt good.”

The McKale Center crowd – at his season best – felt good, too. It’s not sure if those who left the arena with Arizona down late in regulation came back.

“I saw them leaving before the shot went in,” Love said. “But. We give credit to our fans because they showed up and showed out, Probably the best outing since I’ve been here so I give credit to them.”

It was clearly one of the best games in McKale Center’s history, given the magnitude and magnificence.

ISU hit Arizona throughout the game and Arizona hit back. It felt like a heavyweight fight all night, particularly because of its physicalness and craziness. No team gave an inch. No team conceded. It was probably the toughest and most physical game since Arizona faced Houston two years ago in the Sweet 16 and before that TCU.

Welcome to big boy, Big 12 basketball.

“We knew this was going to be a very hard-fought game and we knew it was going to be a physical game,” Otzelberger said. “Both teams played really well in a physical game.”

Now, what does it all mean? One game does not make a season, especially with Arizona State looming on Saturday. In Tempe, no less.

“Do you want to use this game as an event, or do you want to make it part of your process? Lloyd said. “I hope we make it part of our process. An event, it starts, it ends, it’s over. Great, awesome. Process never ends, right? And so, I hope you make this part of our process, that is what I’m looking for …

He spoke about growing and fixing mistakes.

“Because we know this, we’re gonna have to play Iowa State again, and we know they have something waiting for us,” Lloyd said.

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