BYU pulls out win over Arizona Wildcats in controversial ending at McKale Center

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Before BYU put yet another unique note in McKale Center history Saturday, with a 96-95 win over Arizona that featured a controversial call with three seconds left, Cougars coach Kevin Young was watching another telecast that mentioned Arizona’s homecourt dominance.

The Wildcats had been 58-5 at McKale Center under Tommy Lloyd, among other things.

“That didn’t give me a lot of good feelings,” said Young, the former Phoenix Suns assistant coach who took over the Cougars this season.

But, fifteen years ago, there was that one time when BYU came into McKale, plastered the Wildcats by 30 while guard Jimmer Fredette set a still-standing McKale Center scoring record with 49 points in part by sinking nine 3-pointers.

The Cougars returned to McKale Center on Saturday for the first time since that 2009-10 game, and their current roster ripped up the Wildcats collectively this time.

BYU shot 55.4% from the field and hit 14 of 31 3-pointers (45.2%), with guard Richie Saunders leading the way with 23 points that included two late free throws a lot of folks felt he should not have been able to take.

UA guard Caleb Love hit a game-high 27 points when he hit a pair of free throws with 12.5 seconds left to give UA a 95-94 lead. But on BYU’s next possession, Arizona forward Trey Townsend was called for a defensive foul while guarding Saunders along the free throw lane, about eight feet from the basket.

“Basketball is game of reads and they initially cut off what I was hoping for, a 3 at the top,” Saunders said. “But there’s only so much time on the clock, and I was just trying to figure out how in the world to make something happen. Luckily, he bit a little bit on the shot fake, and I was fortunate enough to get to the line when the foul was called.”

UA coach Tommy Lloyd disagreed with the call, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine what McKale Center fans thought: They roundly booed before Saunders shot his free throws, after he shot the free throws and after Saunders caught the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/byu-pulls-win-over-arizona-144742980.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2025-02-23 14:47:00

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