There were moments when Arizona's 85-80 win over USC Thursday night looked familiar and not in a good way. The Wildcats (16-6, 6-3 Pac-12) built up a 20-point lead in the second half with about 13 minutes to play but then went cold over the final eight minutes of the game nearly watching another big lead disappear.
Free throws were important for the Wildcats down the stretch and eventually the team took 40 of them before the final buzzer. UA hit 12 free throws over the final 3:44 to do just enough to earn an important conference win over the Trojans (17-6, 6-4).
As in many instances throughout the season Arizona started off the game dominating in nearly every way, but USC continued to chip away and hang around until things became truly interesting down the stretch as UA struggled to make shots.
It was not the type of win the Wildcats are proud of, but it will help them in the conference standings and that is something the team is happy to build on knowing how crucial victories are during league play.
"They're a good team, obviously it's not easy to play a full 40 minutes of defense," Arizona point Nico Mannion said. "I think we just slipped up a little bit. We weren't as locked in as we should be and they were hitting some shots, too. [Nick] Rakocevic and Big O [Onyeka Okongwu], they're really good bigs and going to the post it's hard to dig where they were catching it and they were just hitting shots."
UA head coach Sean Miller was happy his team was able to pull out the victory and he knows his group will have to learn from the experience, but he believes a loss might have served as a better tool for getting through to his team after nearly letting another game slip away in the second half.
"We didn't play well," the UA head coach said of his team Thursday night. "We didn't play smart and I really feel like we struggled throughout the game. You can always tell when a group is locked in and I thought on our last road trip the focus, our team defense and really the possessions offensively ... I thought everything was really about the team.
"I don't know if I felt better about this year's team than on that trip, but tonight obviously we reverted."
Miller, who locked up his 400th career victory with the win Thursday night, said he didn't think his team performed well during the week of practice and he was not completely happy with his team's shootaround before the game.
It all added up to a familiar scene as the Wildcats had to hold off a late charge from an opponent.
"I think my concern is that USC had 47 in the second half, and I've just seen that too many times," Miller said.
Unlike other times when that has happened this year, however, the Wildcats were able to successfully hold off that late surge to earn a victory.
The team did it by leaning on the freshman group of starters – Nico Mannion, Zeke Nnaji and Josh Green. That trio accounted for 31 of Arizona's 42 second-half points with only three other players scoring in the final 20 minutes.
While Mannion led the team with 20 points and seven assists, it was Green who was able to break out of a recent slump with an impressive performance that featured several big shots and a few electrifying dunks to help keep his team afloat.
"Josh Green, it was great to see him play well," Mille said. "He really has practiced well and hard and I think his heart is in the right place. It's not easy when you struggle as a young player, but he's really gone about things the right way. Man, I was just happy to see him play the way he played tonight.
"He really saved us."
Nnaji contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds for his 10th double double of the season.
UA will be back in action Saturday night when the Wildcats take on UCLA.
WATCH: Nico Mannion and Ira Lee discuss Thursday night's win over USC
DISCUSS: Arizona's victory over USC
