NCAA Tournament: Arizona Wins OT Thriller; Two Pac-12 Teams in Sweet 16

Bennedict Mathurin scores 30 points and makes the winning plays in victory over TCU

For most of Sunday night's second-round game, Christian Koloko was the star for Arizona, but when it mattered most Pac-12 player of the year Bennedict Mathurin made the plays that provided top-seeded Arizona with an 85-80 overtime victory over No. 9 seed TCU in San Diego.

It puts two Pac-12 teams -- Arizona and UCLA -- into the Sweet 16, and only the ACC and Big 12, with three teams each, have more. (See list of Sweet 16 teams by conference at the end of the story.) 

The Wildcats' Sweet 16 opponent on Thursday will be Houston, which offers an interesting offense-vs.-defense matchup. Arizona is fourth in the country in both scoring offense and field-goal percentage, while Houston is fourth nationally in scoring defense and first in field-goal percentage defense.  The Cougars improved in both categories by beating Illinois on Sunday, 68-53 and limiting the Illini to 34% shooting.

Arizona opened as 1.5-point favorites over Houston.

Arizona (33-3) just feels fortunate to have a shot at the Cougars after nearly losing to TCU, which ended up 21-13 after finishing tied for fifth in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs collected 20 offensive rebounds, enabling them to nearly pull off the upset after being 10-point underdogs. 

But Koloko and Mathurin kept Arizona's season alive.

Koloko finished with a career-high 28 points on 12-for-13 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds and two blocks, and he provided the final exclamation point by slamming home an offensive rebound to give the Wildcats an insurmountable 85-80 lead with 11.1 seconds left in overtime.  

But the Wildcats would not have been in position to win had it not been for Mathurin, who finished with a season-high 30 points and scored 11 of Arizona's final 15 points.

His best highlight came midway through the second half with this dunk:

DON’T DO IT TO ‘EM, BENN 🔨 @bennmathurin | #MarchMadnesspic.twitter.com/rFxzR1SaMS

— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 21, 2022

His most important plays occurred later, though. Mathurin made a long three-pointer with 12.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, and the Wildcats nearly won it when Dalen Terry picked up a loose ball at midcourt and put down a dunk just as the buzzer sounded.  Had he laid the ball in it probably would have beat the buzzer, but because the ball stayed in his hands a little longer to dunk it, the ball left his hands an instant after the buzzer sounded.

So we went to overtime as the clock ticked past midnight on the East Coast, causing much of the country's basketball fans to be asleep when Mathurin took control.

Mathurin made a tough layup with 2:59 left in overtime to put Arizona ahead to by two, a lead it never lost, and he hit two free throws a few seconds later. 

TCU then closed to within one point before Mathurin pulled off the play of the game. Kerr Kriisa, who played for the first time after missing three games with an ankle injury, missed three consecutive three-point shots on the same possession, and on the third miss, Mathurin went up amid several TCU defenders and ripped the ball away from all of them and put in a five-footer to push the lead to three points with 1:11 left.  He missed the free throw that accompanied the shot but it was enough, especially after Arizona made a defensive stop and Koloko slammed home a Mathurin miss in the closing seconds.

Three TCU players scored 20 points or more, led by the 23 points from Chuck O'Bannon Jr., the son of Charles O'Bannon, who was a starter on UCLA's 1995 national championship team.

Sweet 16 teams by conference (with number of bids in parentheses):

Big 12 (6 bids) -- 3 (Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech)

ACC (5 bids) -- 3 (Duke, North Carolina, Miami-Fla.)

Pac-12 (3 bids) -- 2 (Arizona, UCLA)

Big East (6 bids) -- 2 (Villanova, Providence)

Big Ten (9 bids) -- 2 (Michigan, Purdue)

SEC (6 bids) -- 1 (Arkansas)

American (2 bids) -- 1 (Houston)

WCC (3 bids) -- 1 (Gonzaga)

Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference -- 1 (Saint Peter's)

These results seem to confirm what people on the West Coast may have been thinking: The Big Ten was overrated.  Only two of its nine NCAA tournament teams reached the Sweet 16, and its co-champions, Illinois and Wisconsin, bowed out in inglorious fashion.  Wisconsin lost to 11th-seeded Iowa State, which finished ahead of only two teams in the Big 12 standings this season after going 2-22 a year ago.  Illinois lost by 15 points to Houston.

This isn't a one-year fluke for the Big Ten.  Last season, the Big Ten also got nine teams into the NCAA tournament, and only one of its teams (Michigan) got to the Sweet 16 and none got to the Final Four.

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Cover photo of Christian Koloko is by Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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