When asked earlier this week if he was surprised Jaden Bradley was named Big 12 Player of the Year, despite not having big offensive numbers, Tommy Lloyd said coaches value some things more than stats. Like hitting the biggest shot of the year.
Bradley’s fallaway jumper along the baseline at the buzzer gave Arizona an 82-80 win over Iowa State on Friday afternoon in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City. The top-seeded Wildcats (31-2) will face either No. 2 Houston or No. 3 Kansas in Saturday’s
tourney final at 4 p.m. PT.
Bradley hit Arizona’s final two baskets, both heavily contested with the first putting his team up three with 45 seconds left. Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey hit a 3-pointer on the other end to tie it at 80 with 15.2 seconds to go, and rather than call timeout the UA played it out and the ball never left Bradley’s hands before the game-winning shot.
Bradley finished with 15 points and seven assists, but before his late heroics the offense had been carried by Anthony Dell’Orso and Ivan Kharchenkov. Dell’Orso scored a UA-best 26, making 6 of 9 3-pointers including two on consecutive possessions late in the game to match a flurry of 3s by Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic.
Momcilovic hit eight threes and scored 28, while Justin Jefferson had 21. The fifth-seeded Cyclones (27-7) were 14 of 31 from 3 and shot 47.3 percent.
Kharchenkov had 17 points, five assists and three steals while Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year Tobe Awaka had 10 points and 10 rebounds for a second straight double-double and fourth in the last six games.
Arizona shot 55.2 percent, 62.1 percent in the second half, and was 8 of 16 from 3. The Wildcats trailed by 12 early, tied for their biggest deficit of the season, and overcame an off night from Brayden Burries, who was 0 for 7 from the field and finished with three points.
The UA trailed 43-37 at halftime after being up three with 90 seconds left. The Wildcats forced four turnovers in a 3-minute span to help get within 52-50, and had a chance to tie or go ahead but an empty possession that ended with Motiejus Krivas missing a 3 led to a Momciolovic 3 on the other end.
Iowa State built the lead by to six before the UA scored eight in a row, going up 62-60 on a Dell’Orso 3 with 10:16 left. The Wildcats held the lead until a third-chance possession gave the Cyclones it back at 65-64 before Burries made two free throws to go back in front with 6:02 to go.
Kharchenkov hit a fallaway jumper to make it a 5-point lead with 4:07 left before the teams traded 3s on five consecutive possessions. Momcilovic hit two for Iowa State, with Dell’Orso matching each time, then Jefferson drained one to get Iowa State within 76-74.
Awaka dunked for a 4-point lead only to see Momcilovic hit his eighth 3 to make it 78-77 with 1:17 remaining. Bradley then hit the first of his two baskets before Lipsey tied it on the other end ahead of the final shot.
Iowa State jumped out to a 14-2 lead, forcing four turnovers and getting seven second-chance points. Arizona went almost five minutes without a field goal to start the game beforeDell’Orso hit a 3. Dell’Orso had eight of the UA’s first 14 points.
The Wildcats started 1 for 7 from the field but then made four in a row yet couldn’t get closer than five as the Cyclones kept scoring. A sixth turnover, after a challenged out-of-bounds called, led to a Nate Buchanan jumper to put ISU up 29-21.
Defensive pressure allowed the UA to chip away, withKharchenkov and Dell’Orso scoring off steals and cutting it to 31-28 with 4:55 left in the first half. The Wildcats then took their first lead during a 9-0 run when Kharchenkov dished inside toAwaka for a layup.
Arizona was up 37-34 and had two chances to extend the lead but instead had a disastrous finish to the half. The Wildcats turned it over three times whileMomcilovic hit three 3s in the last 1:23, including one at the buzzer to put the Cyclones up 6.
