Arizona Wildcats reach Sweet 16 to face Duke Blue Devils

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Bruce Pascoe
 |  Arizona Republic

Arizona’s Caleb Love talks March Madness expectations ahead of the NCAA Tournament

Wildcats’ Caleb Love discusses the ‘standard’ at Arizona and why he believes Arizona can make a deep tournament run.

Sports Seriously

SEATTLE — Caleb Love is off to play Duke again for the 10th time in his college career, and the third time with the Arizona Wildcats.

If he doesn’t like that, it’s his fault.

Love scored 20 of his game-high 29 points in the second half to lead Arizona over Oregon 87-83 in a second-round NCAA Tournament game Sunday and into a Sweet 16 game with Duke on Thursday in Newark, New Jersey.

“I want to” play Duke again, Love said, cracking a wide grin, “but it is crazy how many times I’ve seen them.”

While Love famously threw down 28 points to help North Carolina beat Duke in the 2022 Final Four semifinals, the fourth-seeded Wildcats (24-12) won at Duke early last season after Love hit four game-clinching free throws in the final 18 seconds but lost to the Blue Devils early this season.

Now, thanks to Love’s heroics, plus 14 rebounds from Tobe Awaka, four clutch free throws in the final nine seconds from Anthony Dell’Orso and a variety of other key contributions, the Wildcats will get another shot at the top-seeded Blue Devils (33-3), who are also the No. 1 ranked team and No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament field.

Love had nine points on 4-for-11 shooting in the first half, helping Arizona erase an early 19-4 deficit, then exploded in the second half with 20 points on 6-for-7 shooting that included 4 of 5 from 3-point range. He also had six rebounds and two assists after halftime.

“It’s just Caleb being Caleb,” UA point guard Jaden Bradley said. “Everybody’s gonna have ups and downs, but you know Caleb, when he’s on, he’s on. We kept feeding him, we trusted him. And he had some big-time shots and also some big-time plays on defense.”

Already having tied the Oregon arena single-game scoring record with 36 points last season, Love…

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Source link : https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/ua/2025/03/24/arizona-wildcats-reach-sweet-16-to-face-duke-blue-devils-thursday-march-27/82644322007/

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Publish date : 2025-03-24 23:31:00

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