Pac-12 Tournament: Arizona Wins Without Kerr Kriisa, Faces UCLA in Title Game

Colorado falls in semifinals and is unlikely to make the NCAA tournament field. USC loses to Bruins

Top-seeded Arizona and second-seeded UCLA will meet in the Pac-12 tournament championship game Saturday at 6 p.m. (Pacific time) in Las Vegas on FOX television. They split their two regular-season meeting, with the Bruins winning by 16 points on January 15 in Los Angeles, and Arizona winning 76-66 on February 3 in Tucson.

Here's how they got to the finals:

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Arizona 82, Colorado 72.

Top-seeded and second-ranked Arizona showed it can beat good teams without point guard Kerr Kriisa when the Wildcats took down Colorado.

Colorado (21-11) qualifies as a good team, having won eight of its previous nine games, including a 16-point win over Arizona on Feb. 26. But the Buffaloes apparently won't be considered good enough by the NCAA tournament selection committee, which is expected to leave Colorado out of the 68-team field even though the Buffaloes finished fourth in the Pac-12. 

Colorado came into the game with a NET ranking of No. 70, which is probably not good enough for an NCAA tournament berth. But the Buffs figured to have a shot against Arizona, because Kriisa, who ranks second in the Pac-12 in assists (4.9 per game) and leads the team in three-pointers made, was not in uniform after suffering an ankle injury that is expected to keep him out of Saturday's championship game as well.

But the Wildcats (30-3) had more than enough without their floor leader, as Azuolos Tubelis scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half and added 11 rebounds. He had perhaps the biggest play of the game late in the first half. With Colorado holding for a last shot, hoping to cut the Arizona lead to four or three points, Tubelis made a steal and turned it into a three-point play with three seconds left that gave the Wildcats a nine-point lead at intermission.

Colorado's Jabari Walker scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half, when he was 5-for-5 on three-point shots, and the Buffaloes got within a point with 11:22 left in the second half.  But with Colorado's two best players, Evan Battey and Walker, both playing with four fouls for the final 10 minutes, Arizona took control down the stretch.

Although the Buffaloes started well, shooting out to a quick 16-8 lead by making their first five shots, Arizona quickly caught up and methodically wore the Buffaloes down. Colorado finished the game shooting just 38.7% while the Wildcats made 54% of their shots.

After scoring 40 points in the paint when it beat Arizona two weeks ago, Colorado had just 14 points in the paint this time.

Arizona's opponent in the title game will be the winner of the late game between USC and UCLA.

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UCLA 69, USC 59

Jaime Jaquez continued his elite-level play, and UCLA (25-6) is starting to play like it did while making its run to the Final Four last year. Now if the Bruins can get Johnny Juzang back on track, they may have something special again.

Jaquez finished with 19 points on 6-for-9 shooting, and over the past four games he has scored 30, 27, 23 and 19 points while making 63.2% of his shots (36-for-57).

Juzang was the driving force in the Bruins' run to the national semifinals last year, and though he provided some hints in the second half against USC that he might be breaking out of his scoring slump, his final numbers were not impressive by his standrds -- 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting.  Over the past four games he has scored seven points, eight points, six points and now 10 points while shooting 34.2% over that four-game span. He has been bothered by ankle injuries, so maybe he will be more productive in the NCAA tournament if he feels 100%.

Third-seeded USC (26-7) will still be going to the NCAA tournament, and the Trojans will have a hot Boogie Ellis leading the way.  Ellis kept USC in the game in the second half and finished with 27 points.

However, he could not push the Trojans ahead as UCLA took the lead with 9:24 left in the first half and stayed ahead the rest of the game.

It enabled the Bruins to get to the conference tournament finals for the first time since 2014.

USC all-conference forward Isaiah Mobley and Jaquez guarded each other for much of the game, and Jaquez got the better of that matchup as Mobley was limited to nine points on 4-for-11 shooting.

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Cover photo Jaime Jaquez and Isaiah Mobley by Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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