Arizona Wins, but There’s a Catch

Arizona Coach Lute Olson was counting on one of his two seniors to make the final shot in Saturday’s Pacific 10 Conference game against Washington at Tucson.

Instead, a freshman saved the day.

Senior guard Jason Terry threw up an off-balance airball under pressure, but freshman forward Richard Jefferson caught it and tossed it in at the buzzer to give No. 8-ranked Arizona an 88-86 victory.

“I just threw it up, hoping that it was going to either go in or someone would put it in,” Terry said. “If it was an assist, it had to be the greatest assist of my life.”

Olson called a 20-second timeout to set up the final play, and intended for either Terry or senior center A.J. Bramlett to take the shot.

But Terry, who led Arizona (11-1 overall and 3-1 in the Pacific 10, with a career-high 30 points and nine assists, couldn’t get an open shot against Washington’s Donald Watts. His desperate 18-footer was far short of the rim but Jefferson was there to grab the ball and scored from point-blank range to give Arizona its 24th consecutive home victory.

“I didn’t have time to do much else but to turn around, grab the ball and shoot it,” said Jefferson, who had 13 points.

Bramlett had 16 points, while Michael Wright, another freshman forward, had 13.

Washington (7-6, 0-3) was ahead by as many as 14 points in the first half and neither team had more than a four-point lead in the second half. Freshman guard Senque Carey led the Huskies with 19 points--10 more than his previous career best. Watts had 18 points and 10 assists.

No. 4 Stanford 71, No. 25 California 62--The Cardinal (13-2, 3-0) scored the first seven points of the second half to take command at Stanford.

Kris Weems had 15 points and Arthur Lee scored nine of his 11 points in the second half as Stanford, which trailed 30-28 at halftime, extended its winning streak to nine games.

Thomas Kilgore tied his career high with 21 points and had eight rebounds for Cal (10-3, 1-2).

Arizona State 91, Washington State 63--Eddie House had 18 of his 20 points in the second half for the Sun Devils (10-6, 2-2) at Tempe, Ariz.

Arizona State led, 38-32, at halftime but increased its lead to 26 points with four minutes remaining after Washington State (7-7, 1-2) went 7:28 without a field goal.

The Sun Devils got 83 points from their starting lineup, with Bobby Lazor scoring 21 points to lead them.

The Cougars were without Jan-Michael Thomas, who was sidelined because of flu after scoring a career-high 34 points in a 98-87 loss to Arizona on Thursday night. Chris Crosby had 18 points.