An opening weekend full of drama and surprise ended with arguably the best game of the NCAA tournament thus far, one that propelled No. 1 Arizona — barely — to the Sweet 16.
The top-seeded Wildcats needed overtime and a host of eye-opening plays to subdue ninth-seeded TCU, which responded to almost every punch with a haymaker of its own. The back-and-forth contest ended with an 85-80 triumph for Arizona in a South Region matchup in San Diego.
Most of the Wildcats’ heroics were delivered by guard Bennedict Mathurin and center Christian Koloko, who combined for 58 of their points, 22 of their 45 rebounds, six of their 16 assists and three of their four blocks. The Pac-12 player of the year, Mathurin overcome poor shooting to start the game with a dominant performance down the stretch, including a vicious dunk over TCU center Eddie Lampkin and a game-tying three-pointer with 14 seconds left in regulation.
For his part, Lampkin had a stellar outing for the Horned Frogs. He scored a career-high 20 points and repeatedly scored tough baskets on Koloko that had Lampkin mocking the 7-foot-1 center as too small to guard him.
TCU forward Chuck O’Bannon Jr. also notched a career high with 23 points, and teammate Mike Miles chipped in with 20.
Down by nine with just under eight minutes to play, TCU reclaimed the lead less than four minutes later, setting up a seesaw affair the rest of the way. The Horned Frogs were coming off their first NCAA tournament victory since 1987 and were looking to reach to Sweet 16 for the first time since 1968.
Instead, Arizona moves on to face No. 5 Houston, which ousted No. 4 Illinois earlier in the day.