Azuolas Tubelis had 18 points and 11 rebounds as No. 7 Arizona rallied to put away cold-shooting No. 19 Southern California 72-63 in Pac-12 play Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.
The Wildcats (19-2, 9-1) were down six points with 6:29 to go but finished the game on an 18-3 run. The Trojans (19-4, 9-4) missed their final nine shots from the field and shot 1 of 15 in the final seven minutes.
Kerr Kriisa scored 13 points for Arizona, and Christian Koloko contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. The Wildcats shot 47.3 percent (26 of 55) from the field and 4 of 10 from 3-point range.
Isaiah Mobley led USC with 15 points and seven rebounds. No other player was in double-figure points for the Trojans, who shot just 34.3 percent (24 of 70) from the field, including 23.3 percent (7 of 30) from behind the arc.
Tubelis had his best game since suffering a sprained ankle against Stanford on Jan. 20, and Arizona needed it to hold off the Trojans, playing their first game of the season against a ranked opponent. USC grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and took 15 more shots.
The Trojans took their biggest lead of the game at 60-54 with 6:29 to go after a 10-0 run, but Arizona quickly answered with a 10-0 spurt. The Wildcats erased that deficit in 23 seconds with a 3-point play by Tubelis and a 3-pointer from Kriisa, and they capped the run with a layup by Koloko for a 64-60 lead with 4:47 left.
Down 64-62, USC had a four-shot possession but failed to score. Koloko made a turnaround jumper for a 66-62 lead with 2:37 to go.
Arizona led 29-28 at the half and was up 39-33, but Mobley kept USC close, scoring 10 of the Trojans’ first 12 points after the break. Max Agbonkpolo’s fast-break, alley-oop dunk pulled USC into a 42-42 tie with 13:01 to go.
The game featured 14 lead changes.
This was the teams’ first meeting of the season, and a rematch of a postponed game in Los Angeles has yet to be rescheduled.
–Field Level Media
