Pac-12 men’s tournament: Arizona, Colorado reach final

Arizona lost a lot after its run to the NCAA West Regional final last season.

But the Wildcats didn’t lose everything.

Derrick Williams took his mad skills to the NBA early after taking Arizona to within a bounce or two of reaching the Final Four. The Wildcats were going to have trouble getting back to the NCAA tournament . . . everyone knew that.

“I heard that all the time,” guard Kyle Fogg said. “People kept saying it. The older guys took that as offensive. We put the team on our backs and that led to a pretty good season.”

One that continues.

The Wildcats finally bullied Oregon State into submission in a 72-61 victory Friday in a Pacific Life Pac-12 Conference semifinal at Staples Center. Arizona (23-10) plays Colorado in the title game today, with the winner getting the Pac-12’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The Buffaloes defeated California, 70-59, in the other semifinal.

Fogg, a senior, scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. Nick Johnson, a senior, sank a three-pointer to start a 20-3 run after halftime that put Arizona up, 47-37. Jesse Perry, a senior, had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Oregon State wilted as the half wore on, and Arizona rode its nine-for-18 three-point shooting to victory.

“It’s somewhat understated how many postseason games we played a year ago,” Arizona Coach Sean Miller said.

The Wildcats won the regular-season title last year and received an at-large NCAA bid. There appears to be no such safety net for Arizona this season.

It’s win and get in, with the Pac-12 credit rating having been downgraded.

Only one major conference was represented in the bottom 100 of the RPI team rankings as of Thursday: the Pac-12. And it had three, USC, Arizona State and Utah.

The conference’s reputation is such that Washington, the regular-season champion, is a bubble team. It would be history repeating itself should the Huskies not make the NCAA tournament. The last time the conference’s regular-season champion was snubbed by the NCAA was 1943-44, when Washington was not invited to what was then an eight-team tournament.

Oregon State (19-14) was responsible for the Huskies’ predicament, eliminating them in quarterfinals Thursday. The Beavers, who finished tied for eighth, continued to be that little-brother-like pest Friday, showing off for alums Gary Payton an A.C. Green sitting in the front row.

Devon Collier scored eight of Oregon State’s last 10 points in a 20-4 run to end the first half. The Beavers’ 34-27 lead had them on the brink of their first 20-win season since 1989-90.

“When you’re at halftime and you’re playing these elimination games, it certainly helps to have players that have done that and been there before,” Miller said. “It would have been easy for us at halftime to say, ‘It just doesn’t feel right.’ We did the opposite.”

Arizona shot 60.9% in the second half. Just about everyone had a hand in it, including Solomon Hill, who finished with 12 points on five-for-seven shooting.

With Williams gone, Miller said, “we have become a team of balance.”

Leading, 47-42, Arizona put things out of the Beavers’ reach with an 11-2 run.

“We just ran out of gas,” said Oregon State Coach Craig Robinson, whose team shot 27.3% in the second half.

Colorado 70 California 59: The Buffaloes’ victory means the top three seeded teams have been eliminated from the tournament — No. 1 Washington, No. 2 California and No. 3 Oregon.

Colorado (22-11) took control midway through the second half with a 19-4 run that gave the Buffaloes a 59-46 lead with four minutes left. Austin Dufault had seven points during the run.

Brown and Andre Roberson each scored 17 points to lead Colorado. Allen Crabbe scored 18 for Cal (24-9).

chris.foster@latimes.com

twitter.com/cfosterlatimes