Back to the Arizona Wildcats Newsfeed

Arizona basketball takes early lead, hangs on to get past short-handed USC

Nearly two weeks after their 22-point lead evaporated in a loss at ASU, the Arizona Wildcats gave off the same sort of feeling Thursday.

In their 85-80 win over USC at McKale Center, the Wildcats took two leads of 20 points in the second half but watched them slip down to just a three-point margin in the final minute. USC’s Daniel Utomi hit a 3-pointer to cut the Wildcats lead to just 81-77 with 29.7 seconds left and Jonah Mathews did the same to make it 83-80 with five seconds left, before Nico Mannion hit a pair of free throws with 3.