Arizona men’s basketball vs. Clemson final score: Wildcats fall to Tigers in Sweet 16

LOS ANGELES—One other yr, one other dose of what may need been for Arizona.

The second-seeded Wildcats constructed themselves an enormous gap within the first half towards No. 6 Clemson, managed to climb out of it however then saved giving the Tigers again the shovel in a 77-72 loss within the NCAA Event Candy 16 on Thursday night time in Los Angeles.

The UA (27-9) misplaced its third straight Candy 16 look by having an epicly dangerous efficiency from the 3-point line, going 5 of 28 with main scorer Caleb Love lacking all 9 triples in a 5-of-18 effort from the sector. The Wildcats shot 37.3 % and had solely three gamers rating in double figures, dropping to 0-6 when fewer than 4 obtained to 10 factors.

Jaden Bradley led the UA with 18 factors off the bench, together with 16 within the second half, whereas Oumar Ballo had 15 factors and 15 rebounds and Love added 13. Starters Kylan Boswell, Keshad Johnson and Pelle Larsson mixed to go 6 of 23 from the sector.

Down 39-31 on the half, Arizona went on a 12-4 run to tie it at 43 by making 5 of six pictures and forcing three Clemson turnovers. The Wildcats took their first lead, at 46-45, on a Love layup, and that woke the Tigers up.

A 3 by Jack Clark Jr. gave them again the lead, which they prolonged to 53-48 not lengthy after. The UA chipped away, tying it at 56 with 9:55 remaining on back-to-back journeys to the road by Bradley, however then Clemson ran off 5 in a row once more together with a banked-in 3 by Ian Schieffelin.

The road was the one positioned Arizona was scoring after the recent begin, with the Wildcats lacking 18 of 19 pictures. But Clemson’s lead was solely seven when Johnson hit a 3 to finish the sector objective drought and get the UA inside 65-61 with 4:21 left.

A Bradley dunk off a steal minimize it to 66-63 with 3:26 remaining as Clemson matched the UA’s chilly taking pictures, lacking seven in a row. Larsson had a 3 to tie it with 2:47 to go however it was off, and after PJ Corridor made two free throws the groups traded baskets inside with the Tigers scoring off a back-cut after a timeout to make it 72-67 with 1:05 to go.

Bradley drained his second 3 to chop it to 72-70 with 49.4 seconds left, however Clemson had one closing reply when Chase Hunter drove, laid up a reverse and was fouled. He made the free throw to get it again to 5, and after Love scored on a runner the Wildcats botched the inbounds and allowed Dillon Hunter to get free for a clinching rating.

Arizona had about as dangerous a begin as potential, lacking its first six pictures and turning it over thrice earlier than scoring. Clemson took benefit to get out to a double-digit lead with 11:18 within the first half, extending it to 13 on a Chauncey Wiggins 3 (off a UA turnover) and prompting Tommy Lloyd to name timeout down 27-14 with 7:19 go within the half.

The Wildcats began to click on, briefly, occurring a 6-0 run by driving and drawing fouls, and inside 31-24 with 5:10 remaining solely to see the Tigers rating twice in a row to get it again to 11. One other UA push, highlighted by a pair of Ballo dunks, minimize the deficit to 6 within the closing minute earlier than Clemson made its first foul pictures of the sport and Love airballed a protracted 3 earlier than the half ended.