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Arizona shows why it was the best team in the Big 12 with win over Houston

· Yahoo Sports

Arizona solidified its status as one of the top seeds in the NCAA tournament with a 79-74 win over Houston in the Big 12 championship game.

The Wildcats built a 15-point lead with 14:04 to go in the second half before Houston made the game very interesting. If only for a moment. The Cougars went on a 14-0 run over the next seven minutes before Brayden Burries’ second-chance basket with 6:40 to go put Arizona back up three.

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Houston never got within two after that, and Arizona started banking in shots. When Ivan Kharchenkov’s 3-pointer went in off the backboard as the shot clock was expiring, it was hard to see how Houston was going to win.

The Cougars got close again, however. A Milos Uzan 3-pointer with less than a minute to go cut the Arizona lead to three. But Motiejus Krivas got the rebound off a Koa Peat miss with less than 23 seconds to go and extended the lead back to two possessions.

Both Burries and Peat had 21 points as the freshmen starred for the Wildcats. Burries had a rough start — his first shots didn’t hit the rim — but he got hot before the end of the first half and hit all seven of his free throws. Peat was 7-of-15 from the field and 7-of-11 from the line before he fouled out with less than a minute to go.

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Houston, meanwhile, didn’t get the same level of contribution from its talented freshmen. After scoring 38 points combined against Kansas in the semifinals on Friday night, Kingston Flemings had eight points and was just 3-of-12 shooting. Chris Cenac Jr. scored five and took four shots as he played only 19 minutes thanks to four fouls. 

We can pencil the Wildcats in as the No. 1 seed in the West region on Selection Sunday. With Duke occupying the East and Michigan the top seed in the Midwest, the only question that surrounds the Wildcats heading into the NCAA tournament is if they are the No. 2 or No. 3 overall seed in the tournament and how tough their region will look after the bracket is revealed. 

Arizona (32-2, 16-2 Big 12) was one of the most consistent teams in the country. Its only losses came in the same week as the Wildcats lost on the road at Kansas and then at home to Texas Tech. After those February defeats, Arizona has won nine straight games. Two of those came against Houston, two came against Iowa State and another came against Kansas. All three of those teams are going to be seeded at No. 4 or higher on Sunday and Houston (14-4, 28-6) will probably be a No. 2 seed.

The Wildcats got a brief injury scare during Saturday’s title game when Jaden Bradley appeared to hit his left wrist on the left knee of Houston’s Emanuel Sharp. Bradley was in significant pain while holding his wrist and immediately jogged to the Arizona locker room after leaving the game. But Bradley, who hit the game-winning shot in the Wildcats’ win over Iowa State on Friday night, returned to the game with a wrap on his wrist after a short stint off the court. 

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