Arizona Wildcats beat USC, clinch Pac-12 regular season basketball title

The No. 2 Arizona Wildcats clinched the Pac-12 regular season title Tuesday after beating the conference’s second-place team, the USC Trojans, by a lopsided 91-71 score.

Arizona (26-3, 16-2 Pac-12) entered its third-to-last game of the season with a 1.5-game lead on USC, which only has one game left in the regular season, against rival UCLA this weekend.

The Wildcats have a remaining series against Stanford and California at home.

Tuesday’s win marks the program’s 16th regular season conference title.

First-year head coach Tommy Lloyd’s team was led by sophomore Bennedict Mathurin on Tuesday, a game in which Arizona led by 24 at halftime. Mathurin’s 19 points and six assists helped the Wildcats rebound from a Saturday loss to the Colorado Buffaloes.

The defeat did not ding them in The Associated Press poll this week, as top-ranked Gonzaga, Arizona and the next four teams in the rankings lost on Saturday.

Arizona will head to the Pac-12 tournament as the No. 1 seed in the conference and compete for a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

Dunk Counter: 8⃣

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— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 2, 2022

Over the course of the season, the Wildcats earned their highest ranking since 2017-18, when center Deandre Ayton roamed the paint at the McKale Center and the team earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That was the last season Arizona clinched a spot in March Madness.

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