NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Arizona Keeps Intact the Far West’s Poor Reputation--It Loses

The NCAA tournament moves on but only Nevada Las Vegas of the Far West moves with it.

Arizona was the latest victim Friday night in the first round of the NCAA West Regional at the Long Beach Arena.

The Wildcats, champions of the Pacific 10, battled hard all the way but just couldn’t stay with Auburn in the closing minutes, losing, 73-63.

So the Pac-10 has an 0-6 record in first-round games the past two seasons. USC, Arizona, Washington and Oregon State bowed out quickly in 1985 and Washington and Arizona followed suit this season.

Throw in California and UCLA, which lost opening NIT games at home, and Pepperdine, the WCAC champion, which was beaten by Maryland on Friday, and you begin to get the notion that West Coast basketball, particularly the Pac-10, doesn’t quite measure up to the rest of the country.

Of course, the experts have been saying that all along

“Somebody said is this another slap at West Coast basketball? I don’t know, but it’s not a slap at the way our guys played,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “I’ve been very proud of the way our guys played.

“Last year, we lost the league title by one game. This year we won it. We still didn’t get over the hump in the playoffs, but next year we’ll be back and be that much better for the experience.”

Auburn (20-10) advances to the second round, meeting St. John’s in a 1:37 p.m. game Sunday.

Friday night’s game began to slip away from Arizona (23-9) after it moved out to a 43-38 lead early in the second half. The Tigers, the runner-up team in the Southeastern Conference, then went on a 10-2 run, getting the lead for the first time in the process.

Arizona managed to tie it at 54-54, but then it was all Auburn as 6-8 forward Chuck Person and 6-7 center Jeff Moore took charge. When Moore looped in a long rebound shot with 3:56 left and added a free throw, the Tigers improved their lead to 61-55.

The Wildcats didn’t have a run left in them.

Person started slowly but finished with 20 points, a figure matched by Arizona forward Sean Elliott.

Olson said that his team was just worn down by the bulkier Tigers. Auburn outrebounded Arizona, 36-21, 13-6 on the offensive boards.

In a fast-paced first half with few fouls, Arizona was in front most of the way and led at the break, 34-32.

The Wildcats opened up six-point leads twice early in the game, but the Tigers closed in even though Person was missing for a while.

Person, Auburn’s all-time leading scorer who was averaging 21.2 points, didn’t get his first basket until 6:45 remained in the first half. Then, he pumped in two more jump shots and scored on a power drive before the half ended.

John Edgar, Steve Kerr and Elliott all took turns in supplying the offense. Elliott and Edgar got inside, while Kerr was accurate from the 15- to 20-foot range.

Kerr has a virus and played only 29 minutes in Arizona’s final regular season game against Arizona State. He got only five points in that game as the Wildcats lost.

Auburn never led in the first half, but it pulled even at 28-28 and 30-30 late in the half.

Then, Kerr hit from the side, forward Chris Morris countered with a short jump shot before Edgar got inside for a basket with 1:17 left before halftime.