Arizona Not an Easy Mark

Arizona was outmanned, undersized, worn out and written off.

But not outdone.

An underdog at home for only the third time in the last 14 years, No. 9 Arizona defeated No. 2 Stanford, 86-81, before a crowd of 14,545 at the McKale Center.

Arizona’s victory kept the Pacific 10 Conference title on hold.

Stanford (25-3, 14-3) could have clinched the championship outright with a victory Thursday.

Instead, with a win over California on Saturday, Arizona (25-6, 14-3) will earn the Pac-10’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Even if Stanford beats Arizona State on Saturday and the Cardinal and Wildcats end up tied, Arizona gets the nod because it defeated Stanford twice.

It was an improbable win, given the Wildcats’ current condition. They were coming off losses last weekend against Oregon and Oregon State and played a fifth straight game without star center, Loren Woods, still out because of a back injury.

Arizona played the last eight minutes without Justin Wessel, Woods’ replacement, who badly sprained his right ankle, and forward Richard Jefferson played much of the second half with four fouls.

“If anything describes that, it was a whole lot of grit,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said.

Did the Wildcats come to play?

Forward Luke Walton finished with 15 points, 12 assists and five rebounds.

“I just started to get in a bit of a groove tonight,” Walton said.

Michael Wright had 20 points and seven rebounds.

“I really took it upon myself to take over inside and give it to those Stanford guys.”

Jefferson?

Arizona didn’t need him Jan. 8 when it defeated Stanford at Palo Alto. He broke his foot in the game’s first three minutes and the Wildcats still won, 68-65.

Jefferson returned to the lineup last weekend, but did not score a point in two losses.

Thursday, he was the spark that ignited Arizona’s second-half blitz.

“Obviously, Jefferson is back,” Olson said. “You could see the lift.”

Jefferson made eight of 16 field-goal attempts and finished with 19 points in 21 minutes.

“I had been reading in a lot of publications that Stanford was the team to beat in the Pac-10 now,” Jefferson said. “They were saying they are the new power. That’s just not true. Arizona is still the team to beat in the Pac-10. Stanford may have taken the No. 2 team over from UCLA, but we are still the team to beat.”

Any argument?

Arizona finished with 14 steals, 24 assists and had only eight turnovers.

It shot 50% from the field, which is news because opponents were shooting only 34% against Stanford entering the game.

“Seems like every time we had a guy open some guy delivered,” Olson said.

Arizona led by only two at the half, but built the lead to 15 with 6:23 left on a Walton basket.

Stanford’s David Moseley scored 14 straight points for his team to keep the game close. His basket with 3:37 left cut the lead to 75-68, but Jefferson’s dunk off a lob pass from Walton with 1:16 left pushed the lead back to 13 to all but clinch the win.

So what’s wrong with Stanford?

After a torrid start, the Cardinal has now lost two straight games and has the wrong kind of momentum leading into the NCAA tournament.

“Our body language, our facial expressions, we’ve got to get some guys playing for a championship here,” Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We’ve got to play like our backs are against the wall. That was an outright Pac-10 title here, and we got out-scrapped.”

Arizona’s victory opened all sorts of possibilities.

With No. 1 Cincinnati losing to Saint Louis on Thursday, and star center Kenyon Martin breaking his leg in the process, the Bearcats will probably lose their No. 1 tournament seeding, leaving two of the top four spots up for grabs.

Duke likely will get the top spot in the East, and the winner of the Big Ten tournament, so long as it is Ohio State or Michigan State, figures to get the No. 1 berth in the Midwest.

With its win, Arizona can make a good argument for being one of the top-seeded teams if it ends up winning the Pac-10’s automatic bid.

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Pac-10 Standings

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School W L Arizona 14 3 Stanford 14 3 Oregon 12 5 Arizona St. 10 7 UCLA 9 8 USC 8 9 California 7 10 Washington 5 12 Oregon St. 5 12 Washington St. 1 16

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THURSDAY’S RESULTS

USC 90, Washington 71

UCLA 65, Washington St. 58

Arizona St. 85, California 76

Arizona 86, Stanford 81