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No. 7 Arizona edges No. 13 Utah, 63-57, with late rally

Arizona forward Stanley Johnson has his shot challenged by Utah forward Jordan Loveridge in the first half Saturday night.
Arizona forward Stanley Johnson has his shot challenged by Utah forward Jordan Loveridge in the first half Saturday night.
(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
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Gabe York scored five of his 12 points in the final two minutes and No. 7 Arizona scored the last eight points to rally past No. 13 Utah, 63-57, on Saturday night.

Brandon Taylor made a three-pointer with 1:57 remaining to give Utah a 57-55 lead. York then drew Jakob Poeltl’s fifth foul and made one free throw and then rebounded his miss on the second attempt and put it in to give the Wildcats a 58-57 lead with 1:39 left.

Hollis-Jefferson, who had 10 points, made three of four free throws in the final minute and York hit two more to clinch the Wildcats’ 13th consecutive win over Utah (22-6, 12-4 Pac-12).

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Kaleb Taczewski led Arizona (26-3, 14-2) with 13 points while Stanley Johnson had 12 points and 11 rebounds. The Wildcats now lead the conference standings by two games with two games remaining.

After dominating Utah, 69-51, earlier in the season thanks to a big rebounding advantage, the Wildcats again bullied the Utes on the boards, 44-35, to overcome 33% shooting.

Delon Wright had 17 points and Jordan Loveridge scored 10 before fouling out as the Utes finished the season 16-1 at home.

Taylor, Utah’s second leading scorer, got his first points of the game on a three-pointer to put the Utes up 47-41, with 8:11 left and get the sellout crowd roaring.

But York hit a 3 and Hollis-Jefferson dunked to draw within one point again. It was back-and-forth from there as the game had seven lead changes in the last 7 minutes.

Under considerable harassment from the Utes, the Wildcats missed their first 10 field goal attempts of the second half before Johnson stole the ball and made a layup.

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Hours after the Utes beat Arizona State, 83-41, on Thursday, Utah students began erecting a tent village around the Huntsman Center in efforts to get the best seats.

The buzz for a college basketball game in Salt Lake City hadn’t been this intense since the 1996 New Years Eve matchup between No. 7 Utah and No. 2 Wake Forest, when future No. 1 NBA draft pick Tim Duncan scored 23 points and future No. 2 pick Keith Van Horn tallied 24 in the Deacons’ 70-59 win.

The first half was the physical battle many expected between the conference’s two best defensive team. Arizona jumped out to a 17-8 lead but the Utes fought back and took a short lead before the half ended with Arizona ahead 29-28. The teams were whistled for a combined 25 fouls.

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