Elite Status for Arizona and Pac-10

It’ll be a Pac-10 party in the NCAA regional finals.

No. 2-seeded Arizona survived a 16-0 first-half run by No. 3 Mississippi and beat the defensive-minded Rebels, 66-56, in the Midwest semifinals Friday night, giving the Pac-10 three of the eight teams remaining in the NCAA tournament.

Stanford, seeded No. 1 in the West and USC, the No. 6-seeded team in the East, reached the round of eight Thursday.

Arizona (26-7) will play top-seeded Illinois (27-7) Sunday. The Illini beat Kansas, 80-64, in the second Midwest Regional semifinal game.

Center Loren Woods, whose senior season fell way short of expectations, keyed the Arizona victory by outplaying Mississippi’s best big man, Rahim Lockhart.

Woods, towering over Lockhart at 7 feet 1, helped contain the wide-body center-forward, who made only three of 11 shots in scoring 11 points.

“It was a huge part of our game plan to double-team Lockhart,” said Woods, who had a team-high 16 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. “We definitely wanted to try to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible, or if he did take a shot make sure there were a lot of guys around him.”

Lockhart, who had 24 points against Notre Dame last Sunday as the Rebels (27-8) won a second-round game for the first time, was constantly harassed down low.

“They came out with a great game plan to double-team me,” Lockhart said. “In the first half, I was very tentative and I let them attack me. In the second half, I started to attack. But they have a really good defense.”

Arizona kept Lockhart in check but struggled on offense in the game’s first 10 minutes in falling behind 18-6. The Wildcats had four turnovers in a scoreless spell of 7:11.

After Jason Holmes made a three-point shot for the final points of Mississippi’s 16-0 run, the Rebels managed to score only six points the rest of the half.

Arizona had runs of 7-0 and 8-0 and trailed at halftime by only 24-23 despite missing all six of its three-point shots.

“I thought we had an opportunity to go up by 20,” Mississippi Coach Rod Barnes said. “They missed some shots and then we missed some shots. They’re a sound defensive team and they sustained their defensive intensity.”

Arizona, after making only five of its first 21 shots, made 19 of its final 36 against the rugged Mississippi defense, which held the Wildcats to their second-lowest point total of the season.

“Their reputation preceded it,” Woods said. “It was probably the best defense I’ve ever seen.”

But the Wildcats also played tough defense as the Rebels made only 34.7% of their shots. Justin Reed led Mississippi was 16 points.

Arizona had only three assists and missed all eight of its three-point attempts, but managed to make 18 of 22 free throws--with Woods making all eight of his attempts.