Arizona Wildcats clinch share of Big 12 title with 84-61 win over Kansas at McKale

Technically, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd is correct. The Wildcats' game with Kansas on Saturday, as he says, really was only one of 18 games on their Big 12 schedule.

But, c'mon. It was Kansas. With Big 12 title implications on the line.

One of the Wildcats' top rivals during the Lute Olson era, one of college basketball's blue bloods, Kansas hadn't made an apperance at McKale Center for 17 seasons — until UA's move to the Big 12 forced the Jayhawks to show up on Saturday for what became an 84-61 Arizona win.

Arizona made KU pay for its long absence. The Wildcats went on a 19-0 run early in the first half, took an 11-point halftime lead and then, after Kansas managed to pull within two midway through the second half, went on a 16-0 run to take control, to the delight of the a capacity McKale crowd that was probably the loudest of the season.

Coincidentally, or maybe fittingly for longtime Wildcat fans, the win also clinched Arizona a share of the regular-season title in a conference Kansas has historically dominated — and eliminated the Jayhawks from it.

Arizona (27-2 overall and 14-2 in the Big 12) now has a two-game lead in the loss column for first place in the Big 12 with only two games remaining. The Wildcats will host Iowa State (24-5, 11-5) on Monday and then play at Colorado (16-13, 6-10) on Saturday.

While Lloyd tried to put Saturday's game in perspective of the entire conference season, he also acknowledged what it really meant to the packed crowd at McKale and the UA fans watching along on ESPN's national broadcast.

"Obviously, a great day at McKale," Lloyd said. "I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this game for a long time, and we understand the magnitude of when these two programs play, what it means. That's just a testament to the history and the legacy of both places.

"But for us ... it counts as much as any of the other ones."

The Wildcats' win was significant for another reason: It was the first they have played at full strength in two weeks, coincidentally since they lost at Kansas on Feb. 9.

Starting forward Koa Peat returned from a lower-leg injury after missing the Wildcats’ previous three games while reserve forward Dwayne Aristode played briefly in the second half after being ruled available after a four-game absence because of an illness.

"It felt great to be out there again with my brothers, competing at a high level and playing against a really good team in Kansas," Peat said. "It was really special to be out there, and especially to come back playing at McKale."

Peat played 23 minutes, while Aristode sat out the first half and played only three in the second half. Lloyd said he didn't play Aristode in the first half because he had "settled into a rhythm" with the seven players he used before halftime, while saying Peat wasn't on a firm minutes restriction.

"Obviously we want to see how he feels day by day, so we'll take a look and see how he feels" Sunday, Lloyd said of Peat. "Obviously it looked like he had some fresh legs today. I noticed him out there breathing a little harder a couple times, but he looked pretty good to me."

Back in his starting power forward role, Peat joined the Wildcats' other four starters by scoring in double figures, collecting 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists while fellow freshman Brayden Burries posted his third double-double of the season.

Just 6-foot-4, Burries grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds to go with his 20 points

"It's just having a nose for the ball," Lloyd said of Burries' defensive rebounds. "Obviously, Brayden's got good physical tools, with length and athleticism ... but it's like reading a pop fly (in baseball), you judge it off the bat ... sometimes you notice by the flight of the ball as it's leaving a shooter's hands, you can kind of figure out where the ball is going to bounce."

While center Motiejus Krivas dunked twice during UA's 19-0 first half run, Burries also highlighted it when he grabbed a defensive rebound that he took coast-to-coast for a layup.

The run quickly threw off the Jayhawks during an early effort that Kansas coach Bill Self praised. Kansas received a 3-pointer from star freshman Darryn Peterson 25 seconds into the game and took a 5-2 lead before UA began its 19-0 run.

Like Krivas, Peat dunked twice during the run. Peat later dunked off an alley-oop feed from Burries, descending carefully after briefly hanging on to the rim.

Meanwhile, Kansas hit just 3 of 15 field goals through the first eight minutes of the game.

"I actually thought we got off to a great start," Self said. "We got the shots we wanted early, but we didn't make them. You look up and we're down eight, right off the bat, and then, and then the dam burst, so to speak.

"But the guys hung in there. We showed some resiliency and toughness and coming back to to make it a one-possession game."

That was what kept the game interesting.

UA's 19-0 lead put the Wildcats ahead 21-5 with 13:35 left in the first half, and they took a 39-28 lead at halftime. But both teams had played evenly toward the end of the first half and Kansas went on a 12-2 run early in the second half to cut UA's lead to two with 12 minutes left.

During that stretch, Kansas' Melvin Council hit a 3-pointer and another jumper while Peterson also knocked in a 3.

Kansas' run left UA with just a 49-47 lead with 12:07 to go, but from there Arizona rattled off a 16-0 run to put the game under its control, starting with a 3-pointer from the guy who was mostly guarding Peterson, UA wing Ivan Kharchenkov.

"Kharchenkov made that freaking long 3 that hit every part of the time, and it was exactly what we wanted him to do," Self said. "After that, it was lights out."

Burries said the Wildcats needed to lock in more defensively in the second half, having let the Jayhawks get easy looks from 3 and open space to the basket.

Lloyd also chipped in a little psychology.

"I just told our guys, 'We're gonna win the game. Take a breath. Stay steady. Let's see if we can put together a little bit of a run here,'" Lloyd said.

"And how do you put together a run? Play by play, play by play, play by play, possession by possession by possession by possession. Get a stop and score. Get a stop and score. It's not much more complicated than that."

All five starters scored in double figures, led by Burries, who had 20 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Peat added 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in his first appearance since leaving UA’s Feb. 14 loss to Texas Tech with an injury he appeared to first suffer a week earlier against Oklahoma State.

Overall, Arizona shot 41.7% but held Kansas to just 34.4% shooting and outrebounded the Jayhawks 47-35. The Wildcats also scored 20 more points at the free-throw line, hitting 30 of 33 free throws while Kansas made 10 of just 11 attempts.

"They physically dominated us inside, as evident to anybody watching," Self said. "Then our shot selection was so poor, and we didn't share the ball during (UA's runs). We had the had wrong guys taking guarded shots, when you've got to play to your strengths. We didn't do that whatsoever."

With the Wildcats' win having eliminated the Jayhawks (21-8, 11-5) from Big 12 title contention, only Texas Tech and Houston (both at 12-4) have mathematical chances of tying Arizona for the regular season title.

But UA can earn the title outright by beating Iowa State on Monday or by winning at Colorado on Saturday.

"It's awesome, but the job's not done," Lloyd said. "I don't think you set a goal at start of the year of 'let's tie for the Big 12 championship.' Let's see if we can win it."