TUCSON, Ariz. -- It was the little things.
Maybe one fewer turnover. A couple more free throws made. Another defensive rebound or two.
But it's the way the season has gone for the Arizona men's basketball team. Tough. Unyielding. And, yes, unforgiving.
Saturday night was another one of those nights, as Arizona lost 69-67 to Washington in front of a national television audience and an electrified “White Out'' crowd at McKale Center. Then they found out after the game that junior forward Kevin Parrom will miss the remainder of the season with a broken foot.
It was Arizona's third consecutive loss in games coming down to the last shot. If the final possession plays out differently in all three games, the Wildcats are 17-5 overall and 7-2 in the Pac-12. Instead, they are 14-8 overall and 5-4 in conference.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
"It's not about winning the close games," said UA's Solomon Hill, who had the best game of his career with 28 points and 11 rebounds. "It's about us doing the little things, so it won't have to be a close game. You shouldn't have to be fighting back when you have the lead at the half. We need to fix areas like that. It looked like things would take off for a minute when we made a run, but we came up short.''
How Arizona bounces back will be key. Parrom's injury is obviously costly from a personnel standpoint, but as for the emotional part of trying to pick up the team after yet another close loss, coach Sean Miller said it's about the process and not so much the results.
"One of things you learn in a situation like this is how important it is to stay together, to be connected and to continue to do the things we would do if we won," Miller said. "That's always the answer. It's not easy, because a lot of criticism comes with losing."
But in the same breath, Miller said he continues to see "a lot of good things" from his team. He pointed to the last four minutes, when Arizona rallied from a 10-point deficit at 62-52 to tie it at 67-67 on a Hill three-pointer with eight seconds left.
Miller said the last four minutes showed "a lot of resolve" and that Hill's play "was excellent."
And Parrom's play before suffering the injury was impressive, as was freshman Josiah Turner's.
"We have a couple of things going our way and certainly a couple of things not," Miller said.
Parrom played just 10 minutes in the first half after suffering an injury to his right foot, which the school confirmed after the game was a broken bone. He wore a protective boot while on the bench in the second half.
"That really hurt us," Miller said of Parrom's absence before finding out the extent of the injury. "Looking at our team at halftime, I thought he was one of our best players ... seven points, two assists, no turnovers and three rebounds.
"We missed him, no question about it."
Just this week, Miller said Arizona had been playing well in part because it looked like Parrom was gradually improving and gaining more confidence.
"Life is not fair sometimes," Miller said. "You want to win every game, and that's the job I have. From his perspective, you just wish he could catch a break."
From Washington coach Lorenzo Romar's perspective, the Huskies were the ones who got the big break. With just more than five seconds left, after UA had tied it 67-67, Turner was called for a blocking foul at midcourt as UW's C.J. Wilcox was hurriedly trying to get the ball up the court.
"It's about time one of those things happened to us,'' Romar said when asked what was going through his head on the call. "Usually, we are on the other end of that. Today, we were the recipient of good fortune on that one."
Romar said that while being on the road he never expected to get a call like that.
"You just have to put that in your travel budget," Romar joked. "You have to expect that you're not going to get (the call). You have to give yourself a cushion that if it comes down to the end, (it) may not work for you."
As was the case for Arizona, although the Cats did have a last-chance shot -- again. Turner drove to the basket in an attempt to tie the score, but his shot was blocked by Washington's Tony Wroten. Nick Johnson went up for a put-back right after the block, but his rebound dunk came just after the buzzer.
"I was kind of shocked at how the game ended," said Wroten, who had a team-high 17 points. "I've never won a game because of defense; it was always because of offense. The block was a great, lucky shot."
And just another blow to Arizona's record and shot at being among the conference leaders at the halfway point.
"We just have to take care of the ball and go back to the drawing board on Monday and get ready for next week's games," said UA's Kyle Fogg.
