Arizona edges USC, 85-80

 Arizona Wildcats Basketball


Arizona, despite a cold-shooting second half, held on to beat Southern California 85-80 tonight at the McKale Center to improve to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the Pac-12 Conference.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 23 in the nation, led by 20 in the first half and took a 43-33 lead into the locker room, but midway through the second half, Arizona suddenly couldn't make a field goal. In fact, with 10 minutes to go, Ira Lee hit a jumper, and at the 8:23 mark Stone Gettings made a layup.

And that was it.

Arizona would have to win it at the foul line and the Wildcats made that interesting as well, canning 15 of 23 attempts down the stretch to hold off the Trojans, who out scored the Wildcats 47-42 in the second half.

Nico Mannion scored 20 points and dished out seven assists, while four of his teammates also finished in double figures. Josh Green netted 18 points as did Zeke Nnaji, who also grabbed 11 rebounds for another double-double. Gettings scored 12 and Lee came off the bench to contribute 10 points.

Next up: UCLA at McKale on Saturday.