For the first time this season, Arizona stayed on the road in between games. Yet despite getting more than two full days’ of rest following its win at Houston, the Wildcats spent much of Tuesday night looking like a team on the second half of an NBA back-to-back with a flight in between.
It wasn’t pretty, but in the end the UA moved a step closer to its first Big 12 Conference championship by outlasting Baylor 87-80. The Wildcats (25-2, 13-2) have a 2-game lead in the standings with three remaining
and can clinch a share of the title with a win Saturday at home against No. 14 Kansas.
Arizona trailed by seven at halftime and 10 early in the second half, its largest deficit since the UCLA game in mid-November, but outscored the Bears 13-5 over the final 4:04.
Jaden Bradley scored 25 points, hitting a career-high five 3-pointers and adding six rebounds and six assists, while Brayden Burries had 23 including 14 in the final 10:09. Tobe Awaka added a double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) as the UA outrebounded Baylor 23-11 in the second half to finish plus-7 on the boards.
The UA shot 49.2 percent overall and were 9 of 21 from 3 for the second straight game.
Baylor got 26 from Cameron Carr and 16 from Isaac Williams, who missed two free throws in the final 1:13 while Arizona was 5 of 6 on foul shots down the stretch and 18 of 23 for the game.
Arizona turned the ball over just once in the second half, taking away a key scoring component for the Bears, who had gotten 14 points off UA miscues in the first half.
The UA trailed 41-34 at halftime, its largest deficit of the season after 20 minutes, then Baylor hit a 3 on the opening possession of the second half to build only the third double-digit lead against the Wildcats this season.
Then a switch flipped for Arizona, scoring seven in a row. Another 7-0 run, capped by Motiejus Krivas’ two free throws, put the Wildcats up 48-46. Bradley’s fifth 3-pointer made it 55-51 with 12:15 to go.
Baylor, which shot 53.6 percent in the first half, missed eight straight shots after that opening 3 but then hit 4 of 6. The last two were monster dunks by Caden Powell andCarr to tie it at 55.
That began a stretch of nearly nine minutes where neither team led by more than two points, mostly because neither team could defend. Arizona had four 1-point leads, including off 3s by Ivan Kharchenkov and Anthony Dell’Orso, but Baylor made 10 of 13 shots after the Wildcats took their first lead of the second half.
The UA finally got a stop on defense and Burries scored on the other end for a 78-75 lead with 3:05 remaining. After that the Wildcats kept the lead, icing the game at the line but not before Burries hit a long 2 with 27.8 seconds left for a 4-point lead, a possession that took more than 45 seconds and included an offensive rebound by Kharchenkov.
Arizona had a 10-8 lead, fueled by two early 3s from Bradley, but then Baylor went on a 7-0 and started to take control. The Bears went up 24-16, the first time in Big 12 play the UA had been down more than two scores.
Bradley had 10 of the Wildcats’ first 20 points but then had to sit for a bit with 8:47 left in the first half following a second foul. The foul was upgraded to a flagrant after a Baylor appeal showed he had smacked Obi Agbim in the face while in transition.
The UA defense was porous no matter who was on the court. Baylor scored on consecutive backdoor cuts and then went up 37-28 on a 3-point play by Michael Rataj that sawAwaka join Bradley andKrivas with two fouls.
Arizona got within five but only scored two points over the final 3:43 of the half.
The UA is back home for the next two games, starting with Saturday’s clash against Kansas and then the home finale Monday vs. No. 4 Iowa State.
