Published Mar 15, 2025
RECAP: Arizona comes up short in 72-64 loss to top-seed Houston
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Troy Hutchison  •  GOAZCATS
Staff Writer
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@THutch1995

Coming into the Big 12 Tournament, Arizona (22-12) has several questions surrounding the team, from 3-point defense, offensive ball movement and the play of key players. Despite falling to top-seed Houston 72-64 in the title game, the Wildcats were able to answers those questions and play a physical brand of basketball right ahead of the NCAA Tournament.

In the first half, guard Caleb Love was leading the team and scored 14 points while attacking the basket and creating contact. In the half, Love went 6 of 13 from the field and had zero turnovers.

In the final two minutes of the game, Houston outscored Arizona 11-2 as guard Milos Uzan hit big shot after big shot and finished the night with 25 points, four rebounds and four assists.

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The second half for Love was a different story as he was dealing with an unknown issue with his legs as he was limping and visibly irritated with whatever issues was going on with his body.

The unknown injury affected his shot and his ability to stay aggressive in the second half. Love took just six shots while shooting 16% from the field leading to five points.

With Love having limitations down the stretch, Arizona's offense struggled in key moments and in the final three minutes of the game went 0-for-4 from the field with all four shots coming at the 3-point line.

In the first half of the game, Arizona was playing rock-solid defense at the perimeter holding the Cougars to 3 of 11 shooting from deep. But, that defense broke down in the second half with Houston shooting 50% from beyond the arc.

There were three key breakdowns on defense for Arizona throughout the game and they all came in transition and led to wide open 3-point shots, which Houston capitalized on all three open looks leading to nine points.

Lastly, the Wildcats turned the ball over 12 times, which resulted into 15 points on the other end for the Cougars.

With the loss, Arizona seems to be locked in as a 4-seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi. However, the Wildcats won't officially know their seeding until the bracket has been revealed, which takes place on Sunday at 3 p.m. (MST) on CBS.

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