LAS VEGAS — Although playing its last two games away from Tucson, it seemed like it was just the location that changed for No. 4 Arizona, with a contingent of fans flocking to each destination and taking over the neutral site with deafening “U of A” chants. The UA faithful got their money’s worth with 10 minutes of free basketball yet didn’t get their holiday wishes, with the Wildcats falling just short 96-95 to No. 14 Florida Atlantic in double overtime Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.
With six seconds left, UA guard Caleb Love, who was the Wildcats hero late in regulation and the overtimes missed the last second would-be game winning shot. Love finished the game with 26 points.
This marks the first loss at T-Mobile Arena for Arizona under Tommy Lloyd after eight consecutive victories and the first loss in Las Vegas for the Wildcats since 2019.
As it has been well documented, Lloyd does not care very much about these types of stats and is only concerned about improving his team.
"I don't make any thing of that. I mean, that's, that's crazy,” Lloyd said. “We love playing here but that undefeated thing, I mean listen, when you get out there with other really good teams, you're gonna win some you're gonna lose some. I know this team is built to win most of those and we're going to try to take the next step forward to ensure and give ourselves a little more margin for error in some of these high level games."
The Wildcats had six players score in double digits, but it wasn't enough to stop FAU's Johnell Davis and Jalen Gaffney, who combined for 55 points on 22-of-40 from the field.
UA center Oumar Ballo once again anchored the Wildcats, pouring in 13 points, a career-high 21 rebounds, and three steals.
"[Oumar] really impacted the game," Lloyd said. "We want to continue to build with him, he's obviously a force. ... For him to go out there and get 21 rebounds, that's pretty impressive.
After starting off each half sloppy on both ends of in its most recent two halves of play, the Wildcats came out of the gates using their size to make an immediate impact grabbing seven offensive rebounds and 12 points in the paint in the first four minutes of the game against an undersized Owls team. Ballo led the charge in the middle, grabbing 14 rebounds in the first, one rebound shy of tying a school for most boards in a half.
Drawing 25 fouls last game, the Wildcats also kept up this trend of forcing its opposition to foul, which helped them a great deal in the first half, with Owls’ leading scorer 7-footer Vlad Goldin picking up two fouls with five minutes to go in the the first half.
The UA also used its hands to intercept the passing lane, collecting five steals as well as to kick to defend the perimeter, only allowing the Owls to shoot 2-12 from behind the arc, which helped Arizona take a six-point halftime lead.
Making its first six shots, FAU finally found its rhythm after a shaky first half, going on a 14-4 run in the first three minutes to start the second. The Owls led by as eight points in the second half until with eight minutes remaining, the Wildcats’ defense resurrected, compiling four steals in four minutes to spark the offense for a 10-3 run to take back the lead. Love led this run with a huge 3-point make, and the floater to take the first lead since 17:43 left in the game.
With 1:31 left to play, UA center Oumar Ballo made a monster block, which was followed by 3-pointer by Caleb Love to take the lead once again, but was followed shortly by a Goldin wide open dunk to send the game to overtime.
The Wildcats and the Owls traded buckets in OT, but a crucial foul call on Pelle Larsson with 58 seconds to play, resulted in FAU to take a 3-point lead. Love then reanacted his late second-half heroics, burying a deep 3-pointer off a second chance shot with 38 seconds left.
Following a Johnell Davis layup with 10 seconds left, Love delivered thrice for the Wildcats, swishing two free throws to send the game to second overtime. However, in a back and forth second overtime affair, it was the Owls who edged out and handed the Wildcats their second loss of the season.
"That was a fun, exciting game, a great experience for us," Lloyd said. "Obviously, we would like maybe one more play go our way. But, we're going to be better for this. And, you know, that's what we set up this schedule. I didn't set the schedule to go undefeated."
Arizona (9-2) will start conference play next game at Cal (4-7) after the holiday break.
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