The Arizona Wildcats are the outright 2021-22 Pac-12 Conference champions after winning both the regular season and conference tournament.
Arizona basketball survived a back-and-forth Pac-12 Tournament championship game in Las Vegas on Saturday night, beating the UCLA Bruins, 84-76.
The Wildcats managed to do so without the help of starting guard Kerr Kriisa the last two contests, as the Estonian suffered an ankle injury in Arizona’s conference tourney quarterfinal win over Stanford on Thursday.
Kriisa was seen walking without a boot or crutches before Saturday night’s contest after being wheelchaired out of the arena on Thursday and seen on the bench with a boot and crutches on Friday.
After trailing 40-35 at halftime, Arizona went on a 22-5 run over a nine-minute stretch in the second half to take a 63-58 lead.
That was largely due to Wildcats guard Bennedict Mathurin, who led the game in scoring with 27 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
Mathurin finished the night shooting 6-of-14 from the field (43%) and 2-of-6 from beyond the arc while going 13-for-15 from the free throw line (87%) in 39 minutes played.
The win improves Arizona’s overall record to 31-3 (18-2 Pac-12) and practically solidifies the Wildcats as a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
And with selection Sunday at 3 p.m., there’s a chance Arizona could be the No. 1 overall seed.
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