No. 2 Arizona beats No. 5 Houston 79-74 behind 21 from Brayden Burries

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Brayden Burries scored 21 points, including a pair of free throws with 8.3 seconds left, and second-ranked Arizona held off No. 5 Houston 79-74 on Saturday night in a rematch of last year’s Big 12 Tournament title game won by the Cougars.

Koa Peat also had 21 points and Jaden Bradley followed his semifinal game-winner against Iowa State with 13 for the No. 1 seed Wildcats (32-2), who head into the NCAA Tournament having won nine straight games — six against ranked opponents.

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Joseph Tugler had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the second-seeded Cougars (28-6). Mercy Miller added 13 points.

Houston, which beat the Wildcats 72-64 in its title game debut a year ago, trailed 75-66 with just over a minute to go before Miller and Milos Uzan hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions.

But when Peat missed a jumper with 22 seconds to go, Arizona big man Motiejus Krivas gathered the rebound and was fouled under the bucket. The 7-foot-2 junior from Lithuania calmly made both free throws to extend the Wildcats’ lead.

Kingston Flemings and Miller missed layups at the other end for Houston, and by the time Miller was fouled and made two free throws, there was just 13.2 seconds to go. Burries was fouled on the inbound pass and put away the game.

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NO. 1 DUKE 74, NO. 10 VIRGINIA 70

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Isaiah Evans scored 20 points, Cameron Boozer made two free throws with 3.9 seconds to seal the game and Duke defeated Virginia for its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship under coach Jon Scheyer and its third title in the past four years.

Cayden Boozer had 16 points, and Cameron Boozer finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as the Blue Devils (32-2) extended their winning streak to 11 games heading into the NCAA Tournament as the likely No. 1 overall seed.

Malik Thomas had 18 points and Sam Lewis had 17 for Virginia (29-5) in a game in which neither team led by more than seven points and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-2-arizona-beats-no-031938363.html

Author : The Associated Press

Publish date : 2026-03-15 03:19:00

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