No. 1 seeds have been an endangered species in conference tournaments this week, with many falling in their first game including previously unbeaten Miami (Ohio). Arizona decided early on it wasn’t going to contribute to that carnage.
The top-seeded Wildcats jumped out to a 27-point lead and then more or less coasted the way of the way, beating No. 8 UCF 81-59 on Thursday afternoon in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City. It was the 30th win of the season for the UA, the ninth time reaching
that mark in school history and second time in five seasons under Tommy Lloyd.
Arizona will face No. 5 seed Iowa State in the semifinals Friday at 4 p.m. PT. The Cyclones (27-6) beat No. 4 Texas Tech 75-53 and have won their two Big 12 tourney games by a combined 71 points.
Brayden Burries had 21 points, the most by a UA freshman in a conference tourney game since 2018, while Koa Peat and Tobe Awaka had 12 apiece with Awaka grabbing 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season. Ivan Kharchenkov had 10 points and Motiejus Krivas added nine with 10 rebounds as the UA shot 48.3 percent, made 6 of 16 3-pointers and finished plus-9 in rebounds.
But it wasn’t all perfect, far from it. Arizona was 17 of 31 from the line, missing 10 times in the second half including eight in one stretch when UCF (21-11) started to make it interesting. The Wildcats had only 13 points in the first 11-plus minutes after halftime yet maintained a double-digit lead for all but the first 3:50 of the game.
The Knights got 14 points from Themus Fulks, who had 30 in their previous meeting, but leading scorer Riley Kugel had just six as he played only 14 minutes due to foul trouble. UCF shot 36.5 percent overall and was 3 of 21 from 3.
The UA led 46-30 at halftime after leading by as many as 27. UCF had a chance to get within 11 in the first two minutes but turned it over, and not long after the lead was back to 20 on a 3-point play byPeat.
The Knights wouldn’t go away, though, even after Kugel got his fourth foul with 15:50 left. A 6-0 run cut it to 54-42 with 11:49 left as Arizona went more than five minutes without a field goal. That streak ended whenAwaka had a 3-point play on the same possession that saw him miss two free throws.
On the play, UCF’s John Bol collapsed to the floor after colliding with Awaka in the paint and had to be helped off the court and into the locker.
The Knights turned it over on the other end, then Jamichael Stillwell was called for a flagrant foul when he showed Awaka into a driving Dwayne Aristode. Awaka would miss both foul shots again but, like the previous possession,Krivas would get the offensive rebound and he ended up scoring to get the lead back to 17.
Arizona missed 8 of 9 free throws in a 3-minute span that kept it from putting the game away, and UCF cut it to 61-48 with 7:24 to go. It was a 12-point game after aFulks 3 with 4:48 to go
That’s when Burries said enough of this and took over, scoring seven in a row in 36 seconds and picking up a steal and rebound along the way. That started a 10-0 run to lead 76-54 with 2:53 remaining.
A pair of 7-0 runs put Arizona up 14-2, and it never really got much closer than that. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony Dell’Orso and Burries were part of a 15-0 run to make it 35-8.
UCF didn’t reach double figures until there were 6:29 left in the first half and needed almost 15 minutes to surpass Burries in scoring. They hit their first 3-pointer with 3:05 left before halftime, having missed 21 in a row from outside dating back to Wednesday’s overtime win over Cincinnati.
The UA led 39-12 with 5:41 to go but only had two field goals the rest of the way, while UCF made its final six shots. That included a dunk by Chris Johnson with 0.1 seconds left.
Arizona will be facing Iowa State for the second time in two weeks. The Wildcats clinched the Big 12 regular season title by beating the Cyclones 73-57 at McKale Center on March 2.
