The fifth-seeded Wildcats, who had not defeated a top 25 team this season, took down the fourth-seeded Longhorns, 70-69, in a Round of 32 game Sunday with their all-American Derrick Williams being hounded by the length of the Texas defense and having to sit at times because of foul trouble.
Williams showed up when it mattered most, though. With Arizona trailing, 69-67, when he drove to the basket with 9.6 seconds left, made the shot and drew a foul from Texas’ Jordan Hamilton.
Williams, a 75 percent free-throw shooter, had made only 9 of 15 from the foul line throughout the game. But he sank this one to give the Wildcats a 1-point lead.
The Texas guard J’Covan Brown brought the ball slowly down the floor, perhaps taking too much time, before charging down the right side of the lane. Replays showed a defender putting a forearm into Brown’s side and pushing him off the path to the basket.
There was no foul call. Brown’s shot scraped the rim. Gary Johnson grabbed the rebound for Texas and his arm was held as he tried to get the ball back up on the rim. The Longhorns begged for a call, but did not get one as Arizona Coach Sean Miller signaled for the referees that they should leave the floor.
“It’s hard for the refs to call it with the game on the line,” Brown said.
Added the official Richard Cartmell: “We all had a look and didn’t have a foul on the play. And the buzzer clearly went off before there was contact up high.”
The Wildcats (29-7) got 16 points from the reserve guard Jordin Mayes, who had been averaging 4.7 points. Arizona made 8 of 14 three-pointers, which helped make up for Williams’s difficult game (4 of 14 from the field).
The Texas reserves, outplayed in the first half by the Arizona bench, found a hero in the second with Brown, who scored 21 of his 23 points after halftime.
The N.C.A.A. tournament has been a poor reflection on the otherwise solid work of Texas Coach Rick Barnes. His teams have been to the tournament 13 times in the 13 years he has been in Austin, but there may be no other program that is a bigger bust in March. The Longhorns, more often than not, are portrayed as a title contender at the start, but resemble something much less at the end.
In those 13 N.C.A.A. tournament appearances, Barnes’s teams have nine losses against teams with lower seeds. The Longhorns, unranked at the start of the season, finished 28-8.
Arizona moves on to face No. 1 Duke in the Round of 8 in the West Region on Thursday in Anaheim.
There was anticipation of a big-man matchup between the Texas freshman Tristan Thompson and the Arizona sophomore Williams, but early on the Longhorns let the 6-foot-6 forward Gary Johnson handle the clever Williams, who has a variety of moves around the basket. Texas did not want to risk foul trouble by Thompson, who is the Longhorns’ second-leading scorer (13.4 points per game).
Williams struggled with the quicker Johnson on him and double-team help from the weakside. He was 0 for 6 from the field in the first half and had to go to the bench with 4 minutes 31 seconds to play in the half after picking up his second foul.
It turned out Williams was the least of Texas’ problems. The sophomore forward Solomon Hill, one of three Arizona players who had committed to Southern California before pulling out of those commitments, scored 12 points in the first 20 minutes as Arizona took a 36-25 lead at the half.
Besides the post matchup, there was also the matchup of Arizona’s efficient offense (51.6 shooting; 39.6 on 3-pointers) against Texas’ long-armed defense, which held opponents to 42 percent and 28.7 percent, respectively.
Arizona clearly had the best of that duel, too. The Wildcats made 6 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half.
الرئيسية 
موضوع: At End, Arizona Hits Shots That Count 
الإثنين مارس 21, 2011 8:09 am
