Pac-12 in NCAA Tournament: Pac-12 Finished as UCLA Eliminated in Wild Ending

All Pac-12 teams are out after Bruins make an amazing late comeback only to be doomed by a long three-pointer by Gonzaga's Julian Strawther

The bottom line is that no Pac-12 reached the Elite Eight for the second year in a row, a tough pill to swallow when the conference thought it had two teams capable of winning a national championship this season.

But it took a wild series of events to eliminate UCLA.

Ultimately it was a long three-point shot by Gonzaga's Julian Strawther with 7.2 seconds left that provided the go-ahead points in Gonzaga's 79-76 victory over the Bruins in a Sweet 16 NCAA tournament game Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Gonzaga ran Villanova’s famous play to get Julian Strawther a clean look. What a finish. pic.twitter.com/kmz9a5Url1

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) March 24, 2023

However, that just begins to tell the story of the crazy finish of this contest.  Gonzaga's Drew Timme finished with 36 points, and 13 rebounds, and UCLA's Jaime Jaquez had 29 points and 11 boards, but those were merely afterthoughts to this game story.

UCLA, which won the Pac-12 regular-season title by four games, held a 13-point lead with 16:49 left in the game, but Gonzaga rallied, thanks in large part to a UCLA cold streak in which the Bruions missed 11 straight field goal attempts over an 11-minute stretch.  That helped the Zags take a 10-point lead with 2:30 remaining, and Gonzaga  still held a nine-point advantage and the ball with 1:28 to go.

---Get a complete breakdown of the game at the All Bruins website by clicking here---

The game seemed to be over, but Jaquez scored eight points in a span of 48 seconds to get the Bruins within two points with 32 seconds left.  After Timme missed two free throws with 25.0 seconds remaining, UCLA freshman Amari Bailey made a three-pointer with 12.2 seconds to go put the Bruins ahead by a point.

A remrkable win seemed to be in the Bruins' grasp, but Strawther came down and let go with a three-pointer about 28-feet from the basket and it dropped through with 7.2 seconds remaining to put the Zags ahead by two points.

With no timeouts left, Tyger Campbell hurried the ball up court but mishandled it into a turnover. Strawther was fouled with 1.1 seconds left and made one free throw to set the final score.

Had it not been for the wild finish, the story of the game would have been Gonzaga's domination of the boards. Gonzaga collected 24 more rebounds than the Bruins, and the Zags had nearly as many offensive rebounds (16) as UCLA had on the defensive boards (19).

So the NCAA tournament is over the for the Pac-12, a bitter disappointment after having two teams -- UCLA and Arizona -- get No. 2 seeds.  Arizona was stunned by Princeton in the opening round, and Wildcats guard Kerr Kriisa entered the transfer portal soon thereafter, apparently headed for Xavier.

UCLA made it to the Sweet 16, but lost for the third straight time to Gonzaga.  The Zags beat the Bruins in a 2021 national semifinal game when Jalen Suggs made a game-winning shot from just inside halfcourt in overtime.  

Gonzaga then beat UCLA by 20 points in a regular-season game last season, and another clutch shot in the closing seconds doomed the Bruins in what was nearly a repeat of the 2021 game.

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Cover photo of UCLA's Abramo Canka and Amari Bailey is by Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports