Arizona Basketball

Arizona pulls out win over former Pac-12 rival Oregon, now faces No. 1 seed Duke in Sweet 16

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Tobe Awaka was one of Arizona standouts against Oregon in the NCAA tournament second-round game (Arizona Athletics photo)

When push came to shove, Arizona went to Love for the answer.

Caleb Love finished with 29 points — including the game-clinching free throws with 2 seconds left — along with nine rebounds and four assists in the 87-83 victory Sunday night over Oregon in the NCAA tournament second-round game at Seattle.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats (24-12) will play No. 1 Duke (33-3) in the Sweet 16 at Newark, N.J., on Thursday at 6:40 p.m., Tucson time. They improved their record to 20-3 in second-round games.

“God gave me the ability to step up in those moments,” Love told TBS after the game. “My teammates trusted me and I had to step up for them. I give all my credit to them.”

Arizona overcame significant point swings in the second half on a missed dunk by KJ Lewis in which he was whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim and a missed alley oop by Lewis in transition.

Oregon converted a free throw after the missed dunk and made a 3-pointer following the missed alley oop.

That’s eight points that Arizona should’ve had but Oregon took.

And Arizona still survived against the Ducks (25-10).

Excruciating is the word for Arizona with Henri Veesaar struggling against Oregon’s Nate Bittle with Tobe Awaka on the bench with four fouls from 8:40 left to 44 seconds left.

Arizona led 68-61 when Awaka (12 points and 14 rebounds in the game) went to the bench. The Wildcats were ahead 80-78 when he returned.

Bittle made a hook shot over Veesaar and Jaden Bradley committed a turnover right before Awaka came back on the court.

“This dude, I’m telling you, he’s a badass, and I love him to death,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said during the postgame press conference of Awaka. “You’ve never met a bigger gentleman in your life. I mean, he’s a 4.0 student.”

TJ Bamba tried to shoot over Lewis in the lane but missed and Awaka corralled the rebound.

Bradley was fouled, and he made one of two free-throw attempts with 21 seconds left to give Arizona an 81-78 lead.

Jackson Shelstad, who had 25 points, immediately drove the lane for an uncontested shot with 10 seconds left.

After Anthony Dell’Orso made two free throws with 9 seconds left, Shelstad made two with 5 seconds remaining. He went to the line because Bradley fouled him before he could try a 3-pointer.

Lewis managed to find a cutting Dell’Orso on the inbound pass and Dell’Orso was fouled. He made both free throws to give Arizona an 85-82 lead.

Love fouled Shelstad again before Shelstad could try a 3-pointer. Shelstad made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second.

Love gathered the rebound and was fouled by Shelstad. That’s when Love made the two game-clinching free throws with 2 seconds left.

Oregon coach Dana Altman was frustrated of his team’s 12-of-22 performance from the free-throw line.

“We’ve won so many close games and we’ve hit a lot of critical free throws. I was shocked that we were missing some of those,” he said.

Bradley, Dell’Orso, Awaka and Lewis each had 12 points, exemplifying the balance Arizona has shown since the Big 12 tournament started.

Oregon started the game in overdrive behind Shelstad’s quick-pace production.

He forced the tempo and led Oregon to a 19-4 lead with 14:49 left in the first half.

When Shelstad scored his 10th point of the game, he matched Arizona’s output at that point with Oregon leading 24-10 with 12:48 left in the first half.

He scored two points the rest of the half while Arizona outscored the Ducks 32-14 to take a 42-38 lead at halftime.

“I knew when we were down we were going to be fine,” Lloyd told TBS. “I’m proud of these guys. I’m proud of this dude (Love). He stepped up big-time today.”

It was Arizona’s largest comeback (from 15 points down) in its NCAA Tournament history. It was also the second-largest comeback in the Round of 32 in tournament history.

“Arizona did the things necessary to win the game,” Altman said. “They out-rebounded us (44-37), hit their free throws (17 of 24), and just made the adjustments that they had to to win the game.”

The physical play inside by Awaka and Lewis was the difference in Arizona’s strong finish of the half.

Awaka had 11 rebounds with a block and steal in the half. His 14 rebounds in the game ties for seventh-most in Arizona’s NCAA tournament history.

Lewis recorded two blocks and was second behind Awaka with five rebounds by halftime.

Bradley (11 points in the first half) and Love (nine) were productive on the offensive end in the half.

Love became the first player in NCAA tournament history to score at least 75 points for two different teams. He played his first three seasons with North Carolina.

When Andy Katz of TBS asked Love how does Arizona beat his old rival Duke, Love said, “Hey, we’ve got to go back and watch film. We’ve got to get ready for them. We’re going to enjoy this win (over Oregon), but we’ll be ready for them when it’s time.”

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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