The No. 1 team in the country was able to make a miracle shot to keep their undefeated season alive on Wednesday. Two days later, No. 2 Arizona wasn’t fighting for an undefeated season, but its game also came down to a time-expiring shot from the right wing while double-teamed. Things didn’t work out nearly as well for the Wildcats as it did for Syracuse, as Nick Johnson’s shot fell just short of sending the game into a third overtime, and UofA was upset by Arizona State, 69-66.
College basketball scores: Arizona State upsets Arizona, Marist wins thriller, Louisville romps
No. 2 goes down, Marist scores five points in 12 seconds, and the rest of the Top 25 action from Friday night.
Ralph Freso
For most of the critical, late-game situations, Sean Miller elected to have Nick Johnson guarding Jahii Carson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson defending Jermaine Marshall. It had worked, as the Sun Devils struggled to score late in the regulation and in the first overtime (so did Arizona, missing forward Brandon Ashley, out for the season with a foot injury) outside of Jordan Bachynski.
When Marshall hit two threes, one heavily contested by Hollis-Jefferson, Miller switched his best perimeter defender, Johnson, to Marshall. It didn’t matter, and Marshall scored on a drive to the basket to put his Sun Devils up by one with 15 seconds left. That set up the crazy end-of-game theatrics that involved a Bachynski block (of course), Sun Devil fans storming the court twice, and a front-rim hitting buzzer beater attempt by Johnson.
In a battle of the top two defenses in the Pac-12, the Sun Devils won out, holding the Wildcats to 36 percent shooting. The game was a battle of ineptitude at the free throw line and in late-game situations offensively. The two teams combined to hit 31-of-56 free throw attempts (55 percent). The two teams also both had possessions within the last 30 seconds of regulation, and neither was able to get the ball to even touch the rim.
Despite all of it, the Wildcats went down, and Arizona State has its first win over a team ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the standings at home in its history.
Marist scores five points in final 12 seconds for win
Neither team may be relevant in the postseason picture, but the ending to the Marist-Siena game was a thriller. Lavon Long hit two free throws to put Siena up 64-60 with 12 seconds remaining. Neither team had any timeouts, so the action following the free throws was completely unimpeded.
Chavaughn Lewis caught the inbound pass and drove all the way down the left side of the court for a layup with seven seconds left to cut the gap to just two. Brett Bisping was then inbounding following the make, but Marist's Jay Bowie stole the pass in the left corner and hit a three with three seconds left to take the lead. Siena was unable to put up a shot on its final possession.
Great shooting from the field overcomes horrible shooting from the line in Louisville’s 82-58 whooping of Temple
Louisville went on a 10-0 run early to put themselves in position to make the game a laugher. The 15-4 lead after that run never went lower than nine the rest of the way, and the score was 52-25 at halftime.
Montrezl Harris had a monster game with 22 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots, but the game was so lopsided that it would have probably been a blowout had Harris never suited up. Anthony Lee and Devontae Watson were the only Owls to make 50 percent of their shots. Watson attempted five field goals.
SMU nearly takes wire-to-wire win over Rutgers, emerges victorious, 77-65
Rutgers held a 3-2 lead very early in the first half. Once Southern Methodist took hold of the lead after that, it was never relinquished. Rutgers fought hard to make it a game at 41-40 with 14 minutes left in the second half, but from there five straight points from Marcus Kennedy started a 14-2 run that ultimately put the game away.
More from SB Nation College Basketball
See More:
