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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Arizona’s shocking upset loss to Princeton not only brought an abrupt end to the season, it also kept the Wildcats and some players from moving up the school’s single-season and all-time lists.
It also caused the program to live in an infamy all its own, as Arizona becomes the first school in NCAA Tournament history to lose twice to a No. 15 seed. The Wildcats also did so in 1993 when they fell to Santa Clara (and future NBA Hall of Famer Steve Nash) … and then made the Final Four a year later.
Arizona finished with a 28-7 record, tied for the 11th-most wins in school history. The 61 wins the past two seasons under Tommy Lloyd—tops for a Division I coach in his first two years—are the most for the program in a 2-year span since Sean Miller won 67 games in 2013-14 and 2014-15 in reaching the Elite Eight in consecutive NCAA tourneys.
The UA fell to 54-32 in 33 NCAA appearances, with now a 17-8 mark as a No. 2 seed. The Wildcats are 27-8 all-time against double-digit seeds.
The 55 points Arizona scored were tied for third-fewest in the NCAA tourney, fewest since losing 65-55 to Wichita State in the first round in 2016. For the season the Wildcats averaged 81.9 points per game, down from last year’s 84-per game clip, and their 2,866 total points ranked 10th in school history.
The UA had 1,023 made field goals, good for 8th on the all-time list, and its 295 3-pointers were one off the school record set in 2010-11. The Wildcats were just 3 of 16 from 3 against Princeton, their fewest this season and tied for the fewest under Lloyd.
Arizona had 10 assists against Princeton, finishing the season with 662. That’s tied for third-most in school history, 64 behind the record 726 set last year.
Individually, junior forward Azuolas Tubelis became the 15th player in school history with 1,500 points during the first half against Princeton. He had 22 for the game, giving him 694 for the season to rank sixth on the single-season list, and his 274 field goals are two off the single-season record shared by Deandre Ayton in 2017-18 and Khalid Reeves in 1993-94.
Redshirt sophomore center Oumar Ballo, who had 13 points and 12 rebounds, was 6 of 10 from the field and shot 64.7 percent for the season. That’s second-best in school history, trailing only Al Fleming (66.7 in 1973-74).
Junior guard Kerr Kriisa, who was 1 of 7 (all 3s) in the loss, moved into a 3-way tie with Courtney Ramey and Bennedict Mathurin for eighth-most 3s in a season with 83. The one make he had Thursday was the 177th of his career, tying him with Miles Simon for 10th in UA history.
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