Arizona Loses Heartbreaker to BYU

Arizona basketball lost a hard fought battle to BYU on Saturday night at Mckale center in Tucson after a poor officiating call in the final seconds of the game. 

BYU came out fiery and their best shooters proved why they are one of the top shooting teams in the NCAA. Richie Saunders, a Junior for the cougars, scored 23 points against a subpar Arizona defense. Saunders also scored two last minute free throws to put the Cougars up 96-95 with 3.2 seconds left on the clock.

Saunders’ foul shots came after Arizona’s Trey Townsend was called for a foul near the baseline. 

Arizona matched the efficiency of the BYU offense, shooting 50.0% from the field as well as 88.2% from the free throw line. Caleb Love was the top shooter for the Arizona squad scoring 18 points on the night., followed by Jaden Bradley with 17 points and Tobe Awaka with 14 points. 

However, Arizona’s defense could not contain the BYU offense giving up 18 second chance points to the Cougars. BYU also shot 54.2 percent from the field and made 14 of 31 their three-point shots, which were much better than their numbers against Arizona earlier this month in Provo. 

Arizona also had plenty of uncharacteristic turnovers. The Cougars scored 22 points off of 14 Arizona turnovers.

Arizona hosts Utah on Wednesday night in Mckale center, their former Pac-12 competitor.