Desert scare
Arizona barely keeps its ASU dominance intact
Posted: Thursday February 11, 1999 01:48 AM
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Michael Wright is just a baby by Pac-10
Standards.
A baby bull, that is.
The 6-foot-7, 235-pound freshman scored 22 points, the most in
his young college life, as No. 10 Arizona escaped with an 86-80
victory over Arizona State on Wednesday night.
"I can rebound and score," Wright said. "I can do it all."
He won't get any argument from Arizona State's Mike Batiste, who
tried but often failed to stop Wright's powerful inside game.
"He's going to be a nice competitor in the Pac-10 for his
entire career," Batiste said. "You guys out there better watch
that guy."
The Wildcats (17-4, 9-3 Pac-10) won their 27th straight home
game and their eighth in a row over the Sun Devils, but both of the
victories over ASU this season were uncomfortably close.
Jason Terry added 21 points for Arizona, including two free
throws that put the Wildcats up 84-79 with 22 seconds to play.
Terry and A.J. Bramlett finished their college careers 8-0 against
Arizona State.
Bobby Lazor scored 22 of his 26 points in the second half for
Arizona State (13-11, 5-7), while Eddie House added 24.
Arizona State never trailed by more than seven points and cut
the lead to one twice in the final 1:09, the last time at 80-79 on
Lazor's two free throws with 48 seconds remaining.
"I honestly felt that Arizona State played harder for 40
minutes than we did," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "That's a
great credit to them and their coaching staff for having them that
ready to play."
Bramlett, who made the game-winning basket in Arizona's 74-73
victory at Arizona State on Jan. 14, scored inside to put the
Wildcats up 82-79 with 36 seconds left.
The Sun Devils couldn't score and Arizona got possession on a
jump ball. Terry was fouled and made two free throws to make it
84-79. Lazor made one of two free throws to cut the lead to 84-80,
then Ruben Douglas punctuated the victory with a breakaway stuff.
"We played smart, hard and did everything we could," Arizona
State coach Rob Evans said. "We had 20 offensive rebounds and our
defense was solid. We just need to finish plays inside and we
didn't do that towards the end of the game."
The 6-foot-7, 235-pound Wright, who also had nine rebounds and
his first assist in a Pac-10 game, made his first eight shots, all
from point-blank range, but missed two of four free throws over
the final 2:10 to help Arizona State stay close.
The Sun Devils, with a tight man-to-man defense, had eight
steals in the first half - 10 in the game - and led 38-35 at
halftime.
But, with Wright scoring seven consecutive Wildcats points,
Arizona outscored Arizona State 16-7 to start the second half,
taking a 51-45 lead on Terry's 3-pointer with 15:14 to play.
The Wildcats twice stretched the lead to seven, the last time at
62-55 on Eugene Edgerson's inside basket with 11:18 to go. But the
Sun Devils stayed close and finally caught the Wildcats at 71 on
Mike Batiste's tip-in with 4:53 to play.
The game was tied twice more before Bramlett's inside basket
gave Arizona the lead for good, 76-74 with 2:43 to go.
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