Post players Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis combined for 30 points and 18 rebounds as No. 11 Arizona held on to snap No. 5 UCLA’s 14-game winning streak with a physical 58-52 victory on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.
Arizona (17-3, 6-3 Pac-12) held the Bruins (17-3, 8-1) to 31.3 percent shooting and a season-low point total, but the game wasn’t decided until the final seconds, when Tyger Campbell missed a spinning layup and Jaime Jaquez Jr. failed to convert the tip-in.
Tubelis had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season and fifth in the past six games. Ballo scored a game-high 16 points to go with eight rebounds.
UCLA trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half before making a late run, as Jaylen Clark’s steal and layup with 1:10 left made the score 56-50.
Adem Bona put the Bruins within 56-52 with a layup with 26.9 seconds to go. The game officials then overturned a goaltending call against Bona with 12.8 seconds to play, but UCLA couldn’t convert on the other end.
Pelle Larsson sealed the game with two free throws with 0.9 seconds left.
Jaquez (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Clark (12, 10) each had a double-double for UCLA. Campbell had seven assists to go with his team-high 13 points.
The Bruins excelled at creating second-chance opportunities, pulling down 18 offensive rebounds, but they had trouble converting those chances into points while suffering their first loss since Nov. 20. UCLA finished with just a 9-7 edge in second-chance points.
Tubelis, limited to three points in first half, scored 11 of Arizona’s first 19 points of the second half as the Wildcats gained separation after holding a 26-23 halftime edge.
Campbell tied the game with a 3-pointer to open the second-half scoring, but Courtney Ramey and Kerr Kriisa hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to start a game-defining run 9-0 run for a 35-26 lead with 16:24 to go.
Arizona went up 54-41 at the 5:27 mark on a Ramey 3-pointer. Tubelis could have put Arizona up by 15 about a minute later, but he missed a fast-break dunk that led to a transition 3-point basket by Campbell that cut the Bruins’ deficit to 54-44 and started their late-game surge.
–Field Level Media
