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Pac-12 Tournament: Arizona Tops ASU; Adem Bona Hurt in UCLA Win

Will Arizona State still get an NCAA tournament berth? Oregon's loss probably dooms its postseason hopes. Bruins still pursue No. 1 seed thanks to Tyger Campbell's big game
Jake Curtis|
Pac-12 Tournament: Arizona Tops ASU; Adem Bona Hurt in UCLA Win
Pac-12 Tournament: Arizona Tops ASU; Adem Bona Hurt in UCLA Win

Arizona knocked off Arizona State 78-59 in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament Friday night in Las Vegas putting the Sun Devils right on the borderline of making or missing the NCAA tournament.

Arizona's opponent in the Pac-12 championship game on Saturday will be UCLA, whose 75-56 victory over Oregon in the other semifinal kept alive the Bruins hopes of earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and probably ended the Ducks' chances of getting a berth in the Big Dance.

Tyger Campbell was outstanding in the Bruins' victory in Las Vegas, but it may have been a costly win as 6-foot-10 Adem Bona, the Pac-12 freshman of the year, suffered a left shoulder injury early in the second half that sidelined him for the rest of the game. The Bruins are already without conference defensive player of the year Jaylen Clark for the rest of the season, and now the status of Bona is unclear, although he returned to the bench and appeared to be in good spirits.

Assessing whether Arizona State (22-12) will get into the NCAA tournament is guesswork, based on the Friday morning.projections of the NCAA tournament field by five reputable sites: Joe Lunardi of ESPN, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, Mike DeCourcy at Fox Sports, Bracketville and the trio of Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith and Eddie Timanus at USA Today.

As of Friday morning, ESPN, Bracketville and USA Today had the Sun Devils in the NCAA tournament field, but just barely, putting them among the Last Four In. But CBS Sports and Fox still did not have Arizona State in the field after its Thursday win over USC. Will Friday's loss to a team ranked No. 8 in the nation drop Arizona State out of the field?

Results elsewhere in the country will play a role in ASU's chances.  Rutgers, Mississippi State and Clemson -- three teams in a bubble situation similar to Arizona State's -- lost Friday, but three others in the same boat-- Penn State, Utah State and Vanderbilt -- won Friday.  

In gauging UCLA’s chances of landing a No. 1 seed, it's instructive to note that two of the five projections Friday morning had UCLA as a No. 1 seed, but three had the Bruins as a No. 2 seed. Since then, the other four teams competing for the four No. 1 seeds – Houston, Alabama, Purdue and Kansas – all won their conference tournament games on Friday.

The Bruins probably need to win Saturday's Pac-12 title game against either Arizona to have a shot at a No. 1 seed, and even that would not guarantee a top seed.  There is an outside chance that Arizona could steal a No. 1 seed if it beats the Bruins.

USC, by the way, may be nervous when the selections are announced on Sunday. All five projections had the Trojans in the field as of Friday morning, but three of them had USC as a No. 11 seed playing a play-in game. USC still has better than a 50-50 chance of making the NCAA field, but if a few results across the country on Saturday work against USC, the Trojans could conceivably be left out entirely.

Arizona 78, Arizona State 59

The Wildcats (27-6) shot 56.4% for the game, including 62.1% in the second half, and they made 10 of 19 three-point shots.  And when Arizona is making their threes they are difficult to beat.

Arizona led by just four points with 7:06 to go, but demonstrated its superiority from that point to win going away.

Azuolas Tubelis (17 points) and Oumar Ballo (14 points) combined to make 15 of 21 shots and collect 19 rebounds.

Arizona State went 0-for-9 on three-pointers in the second half and 6-for-26 from distance for the game.  Frankie Collins and Jamiya Neal had 11 points apiece for the Sun Devils

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UCLA 75, Oregon 56

Check out this statistics line for Tyger Campbell: career-high 28 points, 4-for-8 on three-pointers, 6 assists, 0 turnovers. And he he did his best work in the second half when it mattered most.

Oregon (19-14) led by a point one minute into the second half, but Campbell scored 18 points from that point on to help the Bruins (29-4) win going away.

The injury to Bona occurred four minutes into the second half when he was diving for a loose ball. The Bruins are not a big team to begin with, and losing Bona made them smaller. But Campbell scored 16 of his points after the Bona injury.

Campbell has averaged 19.5 points over the past six games, and UCLA has won 12 games in a row.

Pac-12 player of the year Jaime Jaquez had 18 points and 10 boards, while no one had more than 10 points for Oregon, which shot 29 percent in the second half.

Oregon was on the outside fringe of the bubble before Friday's game, so there seems  little chance they will get  bid to the NCAA tournament.

This is what UCLA would miss if Bona cannot play Saturday:

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Two Friday morning projections of NCAA fields:

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Cover photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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