Arizona Staggers but Stops Illinois

Arizona finally is leaving Maui with a championship trophy.

The top-ranked Wildcats, who finished second in their two previous appearances in the Maui Invitational, held off No. 8 Illinois, 79-76, in the title game Wednesday night at Lahaina, Hawaii.

Playing all three games without preseason All-America center Loren Woods, who was suspended for six games for NCAA rules violations, Arizona (3-0) beat Chaminade and Dayton before handing Illinois (3-1) its first loss under Coach Bill Self.

“It would have been easy to say ‘We don’t have our big guy so it’s going to be tough,’ but that’s not something you’ll ever hear from these guys,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said.

Arizona lost to Kentucky on a tip-in at the buzzer in the 1993 championship game and in 1997, again playing as the No. 1 team in the country, lost to Duke in the final.

This could have been another crushing defeat as Illinois, which trailed by 15 points with 3 1/2 minutes to play, used a last-minute three-point blitz to pull to 77-76 with 15 seconds to play.

Jason Gardner made two free throws with 11 seconds left to give Arizona a 79-76 lead.

Gardner scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half to lead the Wildcats, while Richard Jefferson added 18 and tournament most valuable player Michael Wright had 16 points and nine rebounds.

No. 2 Duke 95, Texas 69--Jason Williams scored 20 points and Shane Battier had 16 at New York to lead the Blue Devils (3-0) over the Longhorns (2-1) in the semifinals of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament.

Duke will meet Temple (4-0) in the championship game Friday night at Madison Square Garden. The Owls advanced with a 69-61 victory over Indiana, which will play Texas in the third-place game.

“I was really pleased with our defense tonight,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our defensive rebounding was the key. It got us fast break opportunities.”

Carlos Boozer led the Blue Devils with 11 rebounds.

Dayton 77, No. 6 Maryland 71--Tony Stanley scored 21 points to lead the Flyers (2-1) over the Terrapins (1-2) in the third-place game at the Maui Invitational.

No. 12 Connecticut 83, Louisville 71--Caron Butler scored 20 points in an impressive college debut to lead the Huskies (3-1) over the Cardinals (2-2) in the fifth-place game at the Maui Invitational.

Butler, a 6-foot-7 freshman swingman, sat out the Huskies’ first three games because of an NCAA violation regarding payment of his prep school tuition.

No. 14 Notre Dame 107, Loyola of Illinois 68--Troy Murphy scored 23 points, Matt Carroll had a career-high 22 and the Irish (2-0) put their high-octane offense on display at South Bend, Ind., setting school records by making 16 three-point baskets and connecting on 76.2% of their three-point shots.

No. 24 Arkansas 107, Jackson State 78--Brandon Dean scored 17 points to lead the Razorbacks (2-1) over the Tigers (0-4) at Fayetteville, Ark.