Arizona walked away with the win, but it was far from a smooth landing.
Up nine with just over a minute to play, the Wildcats were in control - until they weren’t. A string of late-game miscues and a few whistles that didn’t go their way nearly unraveled what should’ve been a comfortable finish. In the end, Arizona held on for an 86-83 victory, but head coach Tommy Lloyd made it clear: this one got too close for comfort.
“We’ve got to be cleaner,” Lloyd said postgame. “You just can’t put it in the refs’ hands.”
Let’s break down what happened in those chaotic final moments.
The Collapse That Almost Was
With 37 seconds left and Arizona holding a 83-77 lead, freshman Ivan Karchenkov coughed up a costly turnover. That opened the door for BYU, and they didn’t hesitate to walk through it.
On the ensuing possession, Arizona guard Brayden Burries committed a Class A flagrant foul on BYU star A.J. Dybansta - a momentum-shifting moment that gave BYU both free throws and the ball.
Dybansta calmly sank both shots, cutting the lead to four. He missed the follow-up jumper, but BYU retained possession due to the flagrant. Arizona dodged a bullet when Burries hit one of two free throws on the next trip down, but BYU came back with a thunderous alley-oop from Kenard Davis Jr., slicing the lead to three.
Then came another controversial moment. Jaden Bradley was whistled for an offensive foul on the inbounds - a call that could’ve gone either way. BYU capitalized again, with Keba Keita finishing at the rim to make it a one-point game with 16 seconds left.
Lloyd’s Trust in His Guys
Lloyd didn’t hold back in his postgame comments. He defended his players but acknowledged the mistakes.
“I have an All-American point guard,” he said of Bradley. “I’m really confident with the ball in JB’s hands… In hindsight, I would have done something different.”
The sequence was a mix of missteps and missed opportunities. Arizona gave up offensive rebounds on free throws, turned the ball over under pressure, and let BYU hang around longer than they should have.
Still, when it mattered most, the Wildcats delivered.
Bradley, despite a rare late-game turnover, locked in defensively on BYU’s Robert Wright III. Burries, making up for his earlier flagrant, came up with a clutch block on Wright’s shot and then stepped to the line to ice the game with two free throws.
Finding a Way to Win
Lloyd didn’t point fingers at the officials, but he didn’t shy away from saying what many were thinking: the calls down the stretch didn’t exactly tilt in Arizona’s favor.
“It felt like everything at the end kind of went against us,” he said. “But our guys have competitive character and hung in there and found a way.”
That’s the story here. Arizona didn’t play a perfect game - far from it.
Senior forward Tobe Awaka and Burries each split a pair of free throws in the final minute. The team turned the ball over in critical moments.
They lost composure, briefly.
But they never lost the game.
Looking Ahead
With four days off before their next matchup at Arizona State, the Wildcats have a chance to regroup - and clean up. Late-game execution will be a point of emphasis in practice this week, and it should be.
This team has the talent, the depth, and the leadership to make a deep run come March. But nights like this are a reminder: even the best teams can’t afford to let up.
Arizona survived. And sometimes, that’s what good teams do. But if they want to be great, they’ll need to finish stronger than they did in this one.