Caleb Love, Wildcats glide into Big 12 final after 86-80 win over Texas Tech

There’s the chance to snip a net and gain momentum, sure, but also the wear and tear from daily games that can surface in the more critical moments ahead.

For Arizona, which beat shorthanded Texas Tech 86-80 in the Big 12 tournament semifinals Friday to reach the conference title game against Houston on Saturday, the downside was clear two years ago: The Wildcats collected three wins in three days to capture the Pac-12 Tournament but hobbled into the NCAA Tournament with key injuries and were bounced by 15th-seeded Princeton in the first round.

There’s never really a choice about the matter – “if we have Arizona on our chest and we have the dudes we have, we're playing to win,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Friday – but especially with this season’s Wildcats, maybe it's just as well for them to keep playing.

Maybe they need all the momentum they can get. UA predictably bumped its way through a backloaded Big 12 schedule, losing five of its past seven regular season games before beating Kansas and Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament.

“Definitely having a couple of wins under our belt helps,” guard Jaden Bradley said. “We have a lot of confidence going into tomorrow.”

Nobody probably more so than guard Caleb Love, who singlehandedly scored the first seven points of Friday’s game and wound up with 27. He hit 10 of 15 shots from the field, including a number of runners in the lane and 5 of 8 3-pointers.

But Arizona also had four other players score in double figures, receiving a second straight big night from the power conference duo of Trey Townsend and Henri Veesaar.

Townsend, who has started over Veesaar in the Wildcats’ two Big 12 tournament games, had 12 points and five rebounds while hitting all four free throws he took. Veesaar wrapped his 7-foot frame around the rim for 10 oft-unguardable points, along with eight rebounds and two assists.

There was also 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists from guard KJ Lewis, and another 10 points from point guard Bradley.

“I started off hot, but I just wanted to give that spark to my team,” Love said. “I knew they were going to follow up with that. As the game was flowing, KJ chipped in, big numbers from Trey, and it went on from there.”

It was a second straight big game from Lewis, who has been dealing with an injury to his right wrist since fighting through a screen on Feb. 4 at BYU. After collecting 19 points in 19 minutes Thursday against Kansas, Lewis wore a wrap on the wrist Friday but started peeling it away during the game.

Eventually, he walked off the court and worked with UA trainer Justin Kokoskie, finishing without the wrap – and tying his season high in minutes with 30.

“I guess screw the tape," Lewis said.

Texas Tech had even more health issues to deal with.

When TTU's Kevin Overton tied his season high of 20 points, it was somewhat out of necessity: The Red Raiders were playing without two of their top three scorers: All-Big 12 first team forward Darrion Williams wore a boot Friday after playing against Baylor in the quarterfinals, while forward Chance McMillian did not play because of an upper body strain.

In addition, Texas Tech forward JT Toppin, the Big 12’s Player of the Year, threw up in a trash can in a tunnel adjacent to the court, then finished with 10 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes while missing both 3-pointers he took.

“He was trying to be extra hydrated, and I think he drank too much water,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “He's all right.”

But Williams and McMillian weren’t so well off. McMillian did not play in the second half of Texas Tech’s quarterfinal win over Baylor because of the strain, and didn’t improve afterward.

“Chance last night was in pretty severe pain, and then this morning he woke up and he was definitive that he could not play,” McCasland said. “Darrion Williams was in a similar boat. If you saw him (Thursday) night he was limping pretty much the entire second half and trying to play through it. When he got up this morning he didn't do much in the walk-through and tried to warm up and said he couldn't go.”

With Overton and guard Christian Anderson filling in for Williams and McMillian in the Red Raiders' starting lineup, the Wildcats jumped on them. Love scored 17 points while Arizona held Texas Tech to just 32.4% percent shooting and took a 49-37 halftime lead.

While Texas Tech hit four 3-pointers in less than four minutes to take a 22-19 lead with 11:33 left in the first half,  the Wildcats outscored the Red Raiders 9-4 over the final 2:01 before halftime — thanks in part to little-used point guard Conrad Martinez turning a steal into a layup with 1:12 to go.

Leading 47-39 at halftime, Arizona took early second half leads of up to 14 points before the Red Raiders chipped away again. TTU scored seven straight points, capped by a 3-pointer from Overton, to cut UAs lead to 64-59 with 9:08 left.

Overton later hit his fourth 3 from the right corner to pull the Red Raiders within 70-66 with 6:14 left. At that point, TTU was shooting 57.1% from the field in the second half after making only 32.4% in the first half.

But Texas Tech never came any closer. Veesaar gave UA an eight-point cushion with 1:28 to go, making a layup off Love’s assist and dunking in a miss from Bradley, and the Wildcats held on from there.

While the win may have put the Wildcats back in consideration for a preferential top four NCAA Tournament seed, Texas Tech (25-8) and is projected to receive a No. 3 seed on Sunday.

The Red Raiders could have their full rotation available for the NCAA Tournament, as well as an extra day of rest created by not winning Friday, but McCasland said he, too, wasn’t intentionally trying to steer toward anything but a win Friday.

“It wasn't like it was a master plan,” McCasland said. “We weren't holding (Williams and McMillian) out, to be honest. We felt like those guys, if they could play, they would, and neither one of them felt like they could …

"But they also know we need to be healthy for next week. So our hope is that we get both of 'em back.”

Arizona, meanwhile, has momentum, at least for now.

Houston is considered a lock for a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed, a slow-paced 3-and-D monster that would surprise few by handing well-regarded veteran coach Kelvin Sampson his first national title next month.

That’s why Lloyd didn’t want to bite too hard on the momentum thing.

“We’ll find out tomorrow” if it helped, Lloyd said. “We could get our asses kicked tomorrow.

“I mean, it's great coming down here and getting two wins against two really good teams. To beat Kansas in Kansas City that says something. You beat a Texas Tech team that found a way to take second in the conference, that says something.

“Now, we're staring down the champ. Let's see what we got.”