On Saturday No. 13 Arizona (18-7, 11-3) had a chance to reclaim to top spot in the Big 12 standings over No. 6 Houston. And despite leading for over 28 minutes in the game, a made basket drought of over five minuted and four missed free throws in the second half killed the Wildcats causing them to fall 62-58 against the Cougars.

During the Wildcats' scoring drought, Houston guard LJ Cryer scored 10 of his 15 points hitting a clutch 3-point bucket and a mid-range shot to keep the Cougars out in front of the Wildcats.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats struggled to get back into their offensive rhythm scoring just 10 points in the final 9:10 of the game. Everyone struggled to get their shot going in those last nine minutes including guard Caleb Love.

Love was a spark in the first half scoring 11 points on 5 of 10 shooting from the field. However, in the second period he struggled to get going scoring just six points while going 1 of 5 from the field.

But, it wasn't just Love's shot that was't working for him. He collected five turnovers with three of them coming in the last nine minutes. Yes, he finished with a team-high seven assists, but the five turnovers proved to be costly.

As a team, the Wildcats finished with just 14 assists, so even though 11 turnovers on the night isn't a high number, the ball wasn't moving around the court enough.

Point guard Jaden Bradley has been averaging 33.5 minutes per game in his first year as a starting guard. That is 13.3 more minutes than he played last season. Why is this important?

Well, if you look over the last couple of weeks, Bradley's numbers have declined and against Houston he didn't really get involved much offensively scoring four points while going 1 of 6 from the field in 37 minutes.

Not having Bradley be aggressive, or effective down the stretch of games had hurt the Wildcats during this two-game losing streak.

In the end, Arizona's offensive struggles and missed foul shots down the final stretch proved to be the difference against the Cougars. Now, The Wildcats are two games behind Houston with just six games remaining.

Is it time to hit the panic button though on the team?

No, just thinking where this team was nine games into the season sitting 4-5 and looking like an offensive nightmare for Tommy Lloyd's standards.

No one though Arizona would be in a situation to potential win the Big 12 in it first season but the team is right in the mix. And yes, the offensive woes have comeback over the last two games but it doesn't look to be as problematic compared to the beginning of the season.

The chances are that Houston will win the regular season crowd in the Big 12 but Arizona is in a position to be clicking at the right time as the calendar gets closer to March.

And at the end of the day, the only thing that matters for Arizona and its fanbase is how the team performance in the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona will hit the road to face Baylor on Monday with another late 8 p.m. (MST) tip with the game being televised on on ESPN.

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