SAN JOSE — Getting past the Sweet 16 had been a major hurdle for Arizona, which took four straight losses in that round over the previous nine years. On Thursday night, the Wildcats leapt over that obstacle and kept running to reach their first Elite Eight since 2015.
Brayden Burries scored 23 points and fellow freshman Koa Peat added 21 as top-seeded Arizona rolled to a 109-88 win over No. 4 Arkansas in the West Region semifinals.
The Wildcats (35-2) matched their school record for wins by shooting 63.8% from the field. They will take on No. 2 seed Purdue, a 79-77 win over No. 11 seed Texas earlier Thursday, in the West Region final on Saturday.
Burries finished 7 of 11 from the field, while Peat made 8 of 11 shots. They were two of six Wildcats to score at least 14, the first team in NCAA history to do that in a tourney game. The last time Arizona had six double-figure scorers in the postseason, in the 1997 Elite Eight, the Wildcats went on to win their lone national title.
“Our guys did a great job coming out, executing the game plan and hanging with it,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Sometimes, when things are coming easy, offensively — no disrespect to anybody. Sometimes you just have a flow and it’s going easy, a rhythm. It’s hard to stay in that rhythm for an extended period of time.”
Arkansas (28-9) got 28 points from freshman Darius Acuff Jr., who scored 88 in three tourney games. Meleek Thomas had 17 and Billy Richmond III added 13 for the Razorbacks, who were called for two flagrant fouls and two technicals, one on coach John Calipari. Richmond III was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul with 7:14 left.
“I told my team after, I’m proud of them, what they did this year, and I don’t want them to look at one game and take away from what they’ve all accomplished,” Calipari said.
Arizona shot 64.3% in the first half to lead 54-43, then made its first five shots of the second half to build an 18-point lead. A 3-pointer by Burries made it 74-55 with 14:34 to go.
The Wildcats led by 21 before going nearly three minutes without points, but Arkansas couldn’t get closer than 16, and an 8-0 Arizona run put the Wildcats up 89-65 with 8:52 remaining.
Arizona made 11 of its first 14 shots, building an 11-point lead less than nine minutes in. A putback by Motiejus Krivas extended the margin to 34-22 with 7:57 left in the first half.
Arkansas couldn’t string a run together, finally getting four straight points to climb within 46-35 with 3:05 remaining before halftime.
–Brian J. Pedersen, Field Level Media
