Pac-12 basketball: No. 19 Arizona pulls away late to beat California

Deandre Ayton had 26 points and 20 rebounds, helping No. 19 Arizona clinch the Pac-12 regular-season title outright with a 66-54 victory over California on Saturday night.

Arizona (24-7, 14-4) had the title in its sights for its seniors’ final home game. Instead of rolling against the Pac-12’s last-place team, the Wildcats had a hard time shaking the Bears (8-23, 2-16).

Arizona closed the game with a 13-1 run, finishing off its fifth Pac-12 title in six seasons in the final home game for seniors Dusan Ristic, Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Keanu Pinder.

Allonzo Trier, Arizona’s second-leading scorer, had a rough final home game of the 2017-18 season, finishing with two points on 1-of-10 shooting, including 0 for 7 on 3-pointers.

Cal bounced back from a disappointing first game on the road trip through the desert, keeping the Wildcats within reach until the final 3 minutes.

Justice Seung had 17 points to lead the Bears, who ended the regular season with seven straight losses.

at Utah 64, Colorado 54: Justin Bibbins scored 24 points, including six 3-pointers, to help Utah survive a sluggish second half and beat Colorado 64-54 on Saturday.

Sedrick Barefield chipped in 14 points in his return after a two-game absence and Donnie Tillman scored 10 for the Utes. Utah (19-10, 11-7 Pac-12) clinched the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament.

McKinley Wright IV scored 16 points and Lucas Siewert added 11 to lead Colorado. The Buffaloes (16-14, 8-10 Pac-12) lost for fourth time in five games.

Colorado trailed by as many as 18 points before halftime, but cut Utah’s lead to 57-52 on Wright’s layup with 1:23 left. The Buffaloes got no closer. Bibbins hit his final 3-pointer on the next possession and then Barefield made four free throws in the final minute to seal it.

Stanford 84, at Arizona State 83: Dorian Pickens, playing just down the road from where he grew up, scored all 20 of his points in the second half for Stanford and the Cardinal held on through a wild final minute to beat Arizona State 84-83 on Saturday, damaging the NCAA tournament hopes of the Sun Devils in the teams’ regular-season finale.

Reid Travis had 22 points and 14 rebounds and Kz Okpala 18 points and 10 boards for the Cardinal (17-14, 11-7 Pac-12), who boosted their chances for a top-four finish in the conference and first-round bye in next week’s Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas.

Tra Holder had 19 points, Shannon Evans 17 and Remy Martin 14 for Arizona State (20-10, 8-10).

Daejon Davis’ spin move for a layup proved to be the winning basket with 42 seconds left.

Oregon 72, at Washington 64: Payton Pritchard scored 14 points and Paul White added 13 as Oregon turned back a late rally by Washington to preserve a 72-64 victory on Saturday to end the Pac-12 Conference regular season.

Washington, which trailed 44-29 at the half, used a 9-2 run to pull within 68-64 with 3:12 remaining, but failed to score the rest of the way.

David Crisp had 19 points and Noah Dickerson 18 for Washington (20-11, 10-8). Troy Brown added 12 points for the Ducks (20-11, 10-8).

Crisp had seven consecutive points to trigger Washington’s run. Two free throws by Dickerson made 68-64. But, the Huskies missed their final five field goal attempts and Dickerson, who made his first 10 free attempts, missed the front end of the bonus with 27 seconds left.

Oregon State 92, at Washington State 67: Ethan Thompson scored 23 points while dishing out six assists and Oregon State embarrassed Washington State, 92-67 on the last day of the regular season Saturday.

Oregon State (15-15, 7-11 Pac-12) blew things open from the start going on a 20-2 run over the course of 5:17. The Beavers shot 61 percent from the field in the first half and increased the lead to a 25-point margin at halftime, 54-29.

Three Beaver players scored in double digits by halftime with Thompson scoring 15.

After dominating the first half, the Beavers put their game on cruise control the rest of the way.

Tres Tinkle added 18 points with 12 rebounds and five assists for the Beavers, Stephen Thompson Jr. added 18 and Drew Eubanks contributed 12.

Steven Shpreyregin was the leading scorer for Washington State (12-18, 4-14 Pac-12) on Senior night with a career-high 10 points.