HOUSTON — After quietly entering the room, Tommy Lloyd sat down in his chair and exhaled. He then promptly requested a can of Coke Zero in what’s become a postgame tradition for Arizona’s head coach.
Lloyd popped the top and enjoyed several sips of his favorite drink while addressing the media Saturday after his fourth-ranked Wildcats knocked off No. 2 Houston 73-66 at Fertitta Center.
The win moved Arizona (25-2, 12-2 Big 12) into sole possession of first place in the conference standings with two weeks left in the regular season. It came just hours after Lloyd’s squad earned the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s bracket reveal behind Michigan and Duke, respectively.
Lloyd called it a “great day” for his Wildcats, who have won two straight games after falling to then-No. 9 Kansas and then-No. 16 Texas Tech two weeks ago. That came following a school-record 23-0 start to the season.
“For us to come out on top means a lot, but we’ve still got a longer road ahead,” Lloyd said. “So we’ve got to make sure we’re locked in and prepared to move forward after this, and we will be.”
Arizona locked in and showed tremendous toughness in a physical game against last season’s national runner-up Houston, which lost back-to-back games for the first time in more than two years. Up five at halftime, the ‘Cats briefly trailed midway through the second half before using a 12-0 run to pull away for good after holding Houston (23-4, 11-3) scoreless for more than seven minutes.
As has been the case all season, several players contributed for short-handed Arizona. Anthony Dell’Orso had a game-high 22 points off the bench, matching his point total from Wednesday’s win over BYU. Fellow senior guard Jaden Bradley had 17 points and 8 assists with several big plays down the stretch, while freshman forward Ivan Kharchenkov added 16 points and 9 rebounds.
The collective effort helped offset the absence of injured freshman forward Koa Peat (13.8 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game), star freshman guard Brayden Burries battling illness and big men Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka being limited by foul trouble. The Wildcats turned it over only five times, scored 16 points off 12 forced turnovers and finished with a 38-20 scoring advantage in the paint.
“Winning a game is pretty good any way, especially in the Big 12 Conference,” Kharchenkov said. “We knew Houston is a tough matchup for us, especially with us banged up a little bit. And the two losses didn’t taste right in the mouth, so we just fought, figured it out and came up on top.”
Houston, which shot only 35.7 percent from the floor and scored only three points off five forced turnovers, had its 18-game home winning streak snapped after being assigned a No. 2 seed in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament early reveal. It was only the second loss at home in the past 53 games for the Cougars.
Kingston Flemings, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan combined to make only 11 of 36 shots in the loss for Houston. Flemings had 12 of his 17 points in the second half but shot only 6-for-17 from the field. Overall, the Cougars hit only eight of 26 attempts from deep.
It was the third matchup between the schools since Arizona joined the Big 12 last season. Last February, the ‘Cats fell to Houston in Tucson before dropping a rematch a month later in the Big 12 Tournament title game after being outscored by 13 points in the second half. In 2022, Lloyd’s top-seeded Arizona team also fell to Sampson and the Cougars in the Sweet Sixteen.
“We’ve had some great battles with Arizona, and they’re really good,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “I’d say that’s a good team. They’ve got an outstanding team, really well-coached. They remind me of a lot of the teams that we’ve had around here. They came in here with the right mindset. And maybe we didn’t have the right mindset as much as we needed to.”
The two teams might meet again in Kansas City next month with another Big 12 Tournament title on the line.
“I thought we made some adjustments today, kind of how we moved and spaced the ball a bit,” Lloyd said. “I thought that alleviated some of the pressure and gave us some space maybe we haven’t had before.”
Looking ahead, the ‘Cats — who also have wins at UConn and over defending national champion Florida and Alabama on neutral sites — next play Tuesday at Baylor. They wrap up the regular season with home games against Kansas next Saturday and Iowa State on March 2 and a road contest at Colorado on March 7.
Arizona suffered its first loss of the season at Kansas (20-7, 10-4) on Feb. 9 but hasn’t played Iowa State (23-4, 10-4) this season. The Jayhawks enter the week in a three-way tie for third in the conference with Iowa State and Texas Tech (20-7, 10-4) following Saturday’s upset loss at home to Cincinnati.
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The Wildcats, who tied for third in the Big 12 last season and reached the Sweet Sixteen, split their two games last season against Iowa State. The Cyclones, the final No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament early reveal, fell Saturday at BYU as star freshman AJ Dybantsa had 29 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists after they recently grabbed top-10 home wins over Kansas and Houston, respectively.
Right now, Lloyd remains focused more on the process. That’s what helped the ‘Cats rebound from their recent two-game slide. Now they’re the first school with a trio of top-three regular-season wins since Kansas in 2011-12.
“Obviously, we want to win the Big 12, but what’s really cool about being in the Big 12 is you can take second or third in the Big 12 and still win the national championship,” Lloyd said. “The conference is that strong. So we put ourselves in position to be in position. Now you’ve got to go take advantage of it.”
Houston now sits in second place in the Big 12 standings after losing to Arizona on the heels of last week’s loss at Iowa State. The Cougars, who won Big 12 titles in each of their first two seasons as a league member, return to action Monday at Kansas, followed by home games against Colorado next Saturday and Baylor on March 4 before closing the regular season at Oklahoma State on March 7.
Kansas has won 40 consecutive Big Monday games in Allen Fieldhouse under coach Bill Self. It will be the first meeting between Houston and Kansas since the Cougars beat Kansas twice last season. After playing Houston and Arizona, the Jayhawks go to Arizona State on March 3 before welcoming Kansas State to Lawrence on March 7.
Iowa State heads to Utah on Tuesday before returning home to face Texas Tech next Saturday and traveling to Arizona on March 2. Their regular-season finale is March 7 against Arizona State in Ames.
Texas Tech beat Kansas State on Saturday in its first action since losing reigning Big 12 Player of the Year JT Toppin for the season with a knee injury in a loss at Arizona State. The Red Raiders play Cincinnati on Tuesday, then head to Iowa State on Saturday before wrapping up Big 12 action against TCU on March 3 and at BYU on March 7, respectively.
Sampson urged his players to not overreact to the team’s recent losses. After all, Houston plays in the ultra-competitive Big 12.
“When you sign up to play in the Big 12, you’re going to have adversity,” Sampson said. “That’s part of it. You don’t run from it.”
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