The No. 7 Arizona Wildcats took a convincing next step toward the NCAA tournament Saturday night, ending the No. 13 Utah Utes' 18-game home winning streak and clinching at least a share of the Pac-12 title with a 63-57 win.The Wildcats played to their typical defensive slug fest, with both teams shooting 33.3 percent from the field or worse and a whopping 46 fouls overall. They trailed for most of the final frame before a late missed free throw and clutch put-back from Gabe York gave Arizona the lead for good with 1:39 to go.Arizona freshman Stanley Johnson (12 points) shot a lowly 3-of-19 and was benched late for defensive lapses, but double-digit performances from Kaleb Tarczewski, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and York helped the Wildcats overcome a 17-of-51 shooting night.The Utes got hot from three-point land early on to erase Arizona's eight-point lead, the largest for either side in the game. Utah looked poised to end a 17-year drought without a win over Arizona when it led by six with less than eight minutes to go, but the Wildcats stayed close by.Delon Wright of Utah led all scorers with 17 points, but he was bottled up down the stretch when the Utes turned to him for key buckets late in the game while Arizona made five of its last six free throws to close it out.Zack Rosenblatt of the Arizona Daily Starnoted what's next for Arizona:An absolutely rocking Jon M. Huntsman Center crowd gave the Utes a boost early on, but it was short-lived. Utah led 5-4 in the opening minutes, then trailed until late in the opening half as Arizona threatened to push its lead to double digits after hitting four of its first six shots.The Wildcats held Utah scoreless for a near six-minute span to pull out to a 17-8 advantage with over eight minutes left in the opening period. But when the lid came off the rim for the Utes, their shooters got hot from outside.Four consecutive three-pointerstwo by Brekkott Chapmangave Utah a lead, but more striking was the fact that the Utes' points were coming almost exclusively from deep early, perThe Daily Wildcat:Johnson struggled to a 2-of-9 shooting performance in the first half, but he wasn't alone with the low efficiency. Both teams shot well below 40 percent for the opening 20 minutes, with the two strong defensive units flexing their muscle in the half court and preventing any runs at the basket.Along with the offensive struggles for both teams was a quick whistle from the referee. Doug Haller of AZCentral.com uncovered a disturbing trend late in the first half (the half finished with 25 fouls total):Although the Wildcats finished the first half 1-of-8 on three-pointers, they got to the foul line and entered halftime up 29-28 in a game that promised to be a slug fest down the stretch. That's exactly where Arizona head coach Sean Miller wanted it."I'm looking at the fact they have 28 points," Miller said at the half on ESPN's telecast. "That's what you want to do against Utah. However we get them, we can't pitch a shutout no matter how hard I want to. It's a one-point game, and it's the type of game we knew we were going to play."The second half wore along just as Miller envisionedmore physical, grind-it-out possessions on both ends of the floor. But that also meant a continued scoring slump for his Wildcats, who missed their first 10 shots of the final half.Wright took the offense into his own hands for Utah, using his athleticism to push the tempo and get key baskets like this one shown by Utah Athletics:With the way offensive sets on both ends were sputtering, each team may as well have opted to run up and down the floor. Roberto Payne ofThe Daily Wildcatnoted the offensive struggles:Wright scored six of Utah's first eight points of the second half to take control of the game, as the Utes continued to stifle Arizona defensively by forcing the Wildcats into impossible shots. They kept bothering Johnson in the half court and keeping Tarczewski away from the rim, and took a 47-41 lead with eight minutes to go.Kyle Goon ofThe Salt Lake Tribunenoted Arizona's shooting struggles with Utah sporting its biggest lead:Practically on cue with Utah's momentum swing, the Wildcats found their footing on offense and made four straight baskets to answer the bell and bring things level. But the oft-fouling nature of the first half didn't subside into the second half, as Chapman fouled out for Utah and Tarczewski had to sit crucial minutes down the stretch with four fouls.As best put byUSA Today's Nicole Auerbach, it was hard to avoid the official's wrath Saturday nightbut even she couldn't deny the game's excitement:The game ended with 46 fouls, but it didn't take until then for the fans to be tired of it, per Greg Hansen of theArizona Daily Star:Another half marred by whistles left multiple players on both sides in foul trouble, but it didn't deter from a whirlwind of a stretch run.The lead changed back and forth five times in the game's final five minutes alone. Taylor continued his clutch shooting with a go-ahead trey with 1:57 to go, but Arizona's Gabe York re-took the lead by corralling his own missed free throw with 1:39 left and laying it up for a 58-57 lead.One of two long-standing streaks was about to end, as told by ESPN Stats and Info:A crazy game that proved as back and forth as one could imagine inevitably had a few more twists and turns in store, per Matthew Piper ofThe Salt Lake Tribune:Piper's prediction, surprisingly, didn't materialize. Utah's two chances to take the lead before needing to foul went awry when Taylor missed a deep three and Wright failed to put in a tough driving look. Bungled opportunities to tie it up put Hollis-Jefferson back on the line.He made three of his four charity-stripe opportunities, and York canned two more in the final seconds to put a bow on Arizona's 26th win of the season.Up next for the Wildcats are two home games against California and Stanford to finish out the regular season, but they will likely have one eye looking forward to the Pac-12 tournament. Arizona hasn't won a conference tourney since 2001-02, and it has fallen in the championship game in three of the last four seasons.Seth Davis of CBS Sports has no reservations about Arizona's chances over the next month-plus:The Utes may undergo somewhat of a hangover after an emotional defeat on senior night, but they have a chance to get back to their winning ways before the tournament with road games at Washington State and Washington.With a favorable seed in the NCAA tournament looming, Utah will emerge from Saturday's game battle tested. The Utes should take something from hanging with Arizona, especially after being drubbed by the Wildcats on Jan. 17 in Tucson.As for Miller's Wildcats, they have an valuable fourth win over a top-15 foe to bolster their ever-impressive resume entering March Madness.
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