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Champion 'Cats Arizona clinches Pac-10 title share, automatic NCAA bid
Posted: Sunday March 12, 2000 07:49 PM
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Of the nine Pac-10 titles his Arizona teams have either won or shared, coach Lute Olson admitted this might be the most rewarding. "They're all sweet, but I think the odds under which this group of guys did this is just still sort of unbelievable to me," Olson said after his ninth-ranked Wildcats beat California 70-61 Saturday to finish as Pac-10 co-champion and earn the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Injuries, transfers, medical and academic problems left the team down to no more than seven scholarship players, all but one freshmen and sophomores, throughout the Pac-10 season. Still, Arizona (26-6, 15-3) is a leading candidate to be the No. 1 seed in the West.
Especially with all their problems, the Wildcats believe they've earned the region's top spot. "I think with a six-man rotation, we deserve to be the No. 1 seed," Arizona's Michael Wright said. "We won the Pac-10 title. We deserve it." The Wildcats suffered an emotional hangover after its big victory over No. 2 Stanford two nights earlier, but still held on to beat the Bears. "It's not easy to be as far up as the guys were on Thursday and so emotionally into it and come back Saturday with the same kind of effort," Olson said. "That effort against Stanford took every ounce of energy from every guy on the court." Gilbert Arenas scored 22 for the Wildcats (26-6, 15-3), who share the conference title with Stanford, but get the automatic bid by beating the Cardinal twice. Cal (16-14, 7-11) didn't make it easy for the 'Cats, who were without Justin Wessel. Wessel sprained his right ankle in Thursday night's 86-81 victory over Stanford. With 7-foot-1 Loren Woods already out with a back injury, Arizona was down to six scholarship players, all freshmen and sophomores, and no true center. Michael Wright scored 15 for the Wildcats, 12 in a 3 1/2-minute stretch early in the game. Jason Gardner added 13 points. Ryan Forehan-Kelly, despite a 102-degree fever before the game, scored a career-high 20, including six of eight 3-pointers, for the Bears, who expect a bid to the NIT, a tournament Cal won last season. Sean Lampley and Shantay Legans each added 12. Arizona dominated at the foul line, making 32-of-41 free throws, compared with Cal's 2-for-8. Arenas was 10-for-11 at the line, Gardner 8-for-8. "To see Arizona go to the line 41 times is tough," Cal coach Ben Braun said, "especially when they were so short-handed today. We wanted to keep them on the perimeter, but couldn't get it done. It was a frustrating game, but we were playing the best team in the Pac-10." After trailing by as many as 14 in the first half, the Bears rallied to cut it to 44-40 on Forehan-Kelly's 3-pointer with 13:28 to play. But Arenas' three-point play boosted the lead to 47-40. Another 3-pointer by Forehan-Kelly sliced Arizona's lead to 57-51 with 6:18 to go, and the Bears had a chance to get closer, but Forehan-Kelly missed the front end of one-and-one with 6:02 to go. Lampley missed two free throws with 5:31 to go and Arizona leading 58-51. Arenas' 3-pointer made it 63-51 with 3:43 to play, and Cal never got closer than nine again. Arizona shot out to a 15-6 lead behind the inside domination of Wright, who scored the last eight of a 10-0 run. The Wildcats used an 11-2 spurt to take their biggest lead, 35-21, before Forehan-Kelly's 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer cut it to 35-24. The lone senior honored in the Wildcats' final home game was reserve guard Josh Pastner, who serves as a sort of player-coach and played the last 25 seconds. Pastner, who has his sights on becoming a college head coach by age 28, earned his bachelor's degree in 2 1/2 years and got his master's a year later. Arizona was 41-0 in games in which Pastner played because the Wildcats were always far ahead when he finally got in the game.
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