For the second year in a row, Arizona is the top team in the Pac-12 Conference. Led by a monster performance from freshman power forward Deandre Ayton, the Wildcats defeated USC 75-61 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena to win the Pac-12 tournament, making good on their status as the team to beat after winning the regular-season conference championship.
Ayton was simply unstoppable, scoring 32 points on 14-of-20 shooting while pulling down 18 rebounds, eight of them on the offensive end.
CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein and 247Sports' Evan Daniels were in awe of the Pac-12 Player of the Year:
Ayton picked up another accolade once the game was done, as he was named thePac-12 tournament's Most Oustanding Player. His partner in the frontcourt, senior center Dusan Ristic, had a fine game of his own with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists.
USC held tough in the first half thanks to pressure defense and a balanced attack on offense, and for a time it looked like it was going to force Arizona to fight down to the wire the night after surviving UCLA in overtime. Once Ayton got going, there was no slowing him down.
Sophomore forward Nick Rakocevic led USC with 13 points, all of them coming in the first half. Senior guard Jordan McLaughlin chipped in with 12 points, while sophomore guard Jonah Mathews put up 11 points, quickly coming back down to earth after he lit up Oregon for 27 points in their Pac-12 tournament semifinal contest.
Both teams came out firing, doing well to fight through the fatigue brought about by playing three games in the span of three days.
The big men carried their respective sides in the first half. USC got an early boost from Mathews' precise shooting, but it was Rakocevic who impressed the most. A fine array of post moves and excellent touch on his jump hook made him USC's counter to the work done by Arizona's big man. The Arizona Daily Star's Greg Hansen pointed out it was an unusual offensive outburst for the forward:
That effort brought him level with Ayton after 20 minutes, who found his sweet spot at the elbow. Ristic also came up big with eight points by halftime.
On the defensive end, USC did well to jam the passing lanes and force turnovers. Junior forward Chimezie Metu was especially helpful in that regard with four first-half steals. The strong defensive showing was enough for USC to carry a 33-30 lead into halftime.
While Ayton was simply part of a cast of standouts in the first 20 minutes, he turned things into a one-man show after the break. Whether it was siphoning up rebounds on the offensive glass, hitting a cutter for an easy bucket or hitting his shots in the paint, the 19-year-old Bahamian proved too much to handle for the Trojans.
The Athletic's Stewart Mandel and Barstool Sport's Dan Katz were impressed:
NCAA March Madness captured Ayton's best feed of the night:
The Wildcats were able to pull ahead early in the second half and slowly but surely kept stretching their advantage. After looking so capable of pulling off the upset in the first half, the Trojans faded away. Rakocevic failed to score in the second half, while Mathews lost the shooting touch that had proved so crucial throughout the conference tournament.
The defensive pressure from USC also waned, allowing the likes of Arizona guards Allonzo Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright to get more involved on offense. The Wildcats knocked down their shots down the stretch, and there would be no final push from the Trojans.
Arizona will likely be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, but with Ayton leading the way, it will have just about every team hoping against hope it can stay out of its path. With a strong run in the conference tournament, USC could very well have earned an at-large bid and could be an upset pick thanks to its ability to force turnovers and get scoring from all over the court.
from Bleacher Report - Front Page http://ift.tt/2p0aVNo
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