The Arizona Wildcats wrapped up their second straight Pac-12 regular season title in style tonight at McKale Center.
Not only did the Wildcats blow apart Cal 99-60 to clinch the outright title but point guard T.J. McConnell put on yet another show that could help his case to become the Pac-12 Player of the Year with 11 assists, no turnovers, and eight points on 4-for-5 shooting.
What’s more, forward Brandon Ashley tied his career-high of 21 points against the Bears, the same team that he played against last season when he injured his foot.
Ashley's 21 points led UA offensively, while six players scored in double-digits, including senior Kaleb Tarczewski, who had 14 points and eight rebounds.
UA shot 56.7 percent overall from the field and held Cal to just 38.1-percent shooting, while the Wildcats also outrebounded the Bears 42-33.
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The win also moved Arizona’s nation-best homecourt winning streak to 37 games, giving McConnell and forward Matt Korcheck a chance go out undefeated at McKale in their two-year UA careers if UA beats Stanford on Saturday in the regular-season finale.
UA, 27-3 overall and 15-2 in the Pac-12, had already clinched the No. 1 seed in next week’s Pac-12 Tournament but was playing Thursday to clinch the regular-season title and keep alive in the hunt for a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed.
Up 48-27 at halftime, after Kaleb Tarczewski threw down a dunk before the buzzer, the Wildcat kept up the pace in the second half. They led by up to 38 points, the last with 4:50 to go, after UA coach Sean Miller had begun substituting heavily. McConnell actually played only 27 minutes, leaving for good with Ashley to big cheers with 6:17 remaining.
The only real adversity the Wildcats faced was losing backup guard Elliott Pitts, who stayed in the locker room at halftime after feeling ill in the first half, and when forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson appeared to have a sore shoulder in the second half.
In the first half, Arizona dominated defensively and on the rebounding glass while taking a 48-27 halftime lead over Cal tonight at McKale Center.
The Wildcats pulled away with a 16-2 run that gave them a 33-16 lead with six minutes to go in the half by the time Gabe York sank a three-pointer. Cal made just 1 of 15 shots during UA's run.
Arizona held the Bears to just 30.3-percent shooting and outrebounded them 26-16.
Arizona ran into some early shooting trouble and was in a 12-12 tie after the first five minutes but pulled ahead with seven straight points that included a three-pointer from Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
The game was marked early by foul calls and monitor checks by the officials, similar to the way UA’s 63-57 win at Utah ended last Saturday. After one tussle near the basket, UA forward Brandon Ashley was called for a flagrant one foul while Cal’s David Kravish picked up a personal foul.
Ashley led UA offensively with 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and 5-5 shooting from the free throw line, after he averaged just 7.7 points in the Wildcats' previous three games. As a team, the Wildcats shot 50 percent and made 2 of 6 three-pointers.
Jabari Bird and Sam Singer each had eight points in the first half for Cal.
