Wildcats rally from 19-point deficit, to face Duke in NIT final
NEW YORK -- Arizona was on the wrong end of a big score and
finally did enough things right to advance to the championship game of
the NIT Season Tip-Off.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats were down
27-8 to Drexel with 7 minutes left in the first half Wednesday night.
They closed the deficit to nine at halftime and then went on to much
tougher than expected 66-62 victory.
"I think the story line for this game
may be that Arizona was overlooking Drexel but that's the furthest thing
from the truth," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "We watched every tape
and invested a lot of time and it became apparent to me we were in for a
handful."
It was a lot more than a handful early.
Nick Johnson scored 20 points and
freshman Aaron Gordon had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Wildcats,
who used a 25-4 run spanning halftime to wipe out the 19-point deficit
and take their first lead of the game, 33-31 on a basket by Brandon
Ashley with 16:11 to play.
That was the first of 11 lead changes in
a span of 8 1-2 minutes as the Dragons stayed around a lot longer than
most thought they would.
"Down 19 points is a pretty good lesson
right there," Miller said. "We were on the verge of getting blown out.
In the second half we shared the ball and we were patient. That's what
we did in the second half."
The Wildcats (6-0) will face No. 6 Duke,
which beat Alabama 74-64, on Friday night for the championship at
Madison Square Garden.
"We're a program that has come to expect
success in tournaments and we know we have to play better in the
championship game but we're looking forward to the opportunity," Miller
said,
Kaleb Tarczewski had 15 points and 10
rebounds for Arizona, which shot 46.7 percent in the second half (14 of
30) after shooting 26.1 percent (6 of 23) in the first half.
"We kind of came out flat in the first
half but we wanted to come out strong in the second half," Tarczewski
said. "Our guards did a great job of getting me the ball. I missed some
shots early but they did a good job.;;
Chris Fouch led Drexel with 29 points on 11-of-27 shooting and Frantz Massenat added 17.
Drexel (3-2) had the start double-digit
underdogs can only dream of. The Dragons scored the first nine points
of the game and combined their hot start from the field with Arizona's
miss after miss to take a 27-8 lead with 7 minutes to go in the first
half.
Drexel made 11 of its first 21 shots
from the field in taking the 19-point lead while the Wildcats started 3
of 17 and they uncharacteristically didn't take care of the ball.
They finished the half with 10 turnovers, their average for a game this season. They finished with 14.
Even though Drexel cooled off -- the
Dragons missed 10 straight shots after the hot start -- the closest
Arizona could get was 27-19 on an 11-0 run in which Johnson had six
points.
The Dragons led 29-20 at halftime, the first time this season Arizona was behind after 20 minutes.
"They must have come out in thinking we
weren't that good but we punched them right in the face," Fouch said.
"`We knew they were going throw punches back and we had to take them."
Arizona, which came in averaging 84
points a game, took the lead for good at 46-45 on a dunk by Tarczewski
with 7:21 to play. The Wildcats finally opened some space by taking a
54-47 lead as Drexel continued to struggle with its shooting. The
Dragons finished at 36.6 percent (26 of 71).
"I'm disappointed. We were up 19 and
then didn't make the plays we needed to in the second half," Drexel
coach Bruiser Flint said. "We had our opportunities. They're a good team
and you knew they were going to make a run. In order for us to win
these games we have to make plays. We didn't. We're good enough to make
them but didn't."
Drexel came into the game with a 2-9
record against ranked teams under Flint and the highest ranked of the
wins was No. 20 Louisville on Dec. 14, 2010.
Arizona came in with a 20-2 record in
the NIT Season Tip-Off and its three championships were tied for second
behind only Duke's four titles.
Drexel made one other appearance in the
tournament and that was in 2005 when the Dragon also reached the
semifinals where they lost to then-No. 1 Duke 78-68.
