Down to the wire, Louisiana Rocks Arizona
No. 4 Arizona needs late 3-pointer to avoid huge upset bid by Cajuns
TUCSON, Ariz. — Louisiana wanted to see how it matched up with a top five basketball team Tuesday night.
The Ragin’ Cajuns more than matched up with No. 4 Arizona until the final 11 seconds when the Wildcats got a 3-pointer from sophomore Andre Iguodala that made the difference in a 72-69 victory in the finals of their own Fiesta Bowl Classic.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats (8-1), winners of their seventh straight, led by as many as eight points in the final six minutes before the Cajuns staged a rally and took the lead with 3:40 left when Antoine Landry’s sixth 3-pointer of the game made it 67-65
Two Wildcat free throws tied the game and the teams swapped dunks in the final 1:15 with Dwayne Mitchell’s slam off a Brad Boyd assist, tying the game at 69 with 46 ticks left.
The Cajuns did not allow the Wildcats a shot opportunity on the next possession and knocked the ball out of bounds with 13 seconds left and two seconds left on the shot clock.
However, Iguodala broke for the corner, Cajun defender Dwayne Mitchell slipped when going out to defend, and the sophomore took a bounce pass and buried the tournament winner.
“We wanted Iguodala to take the shot,” said Louisiana head coach Jessie Evans. “We didn’t want a couple of their other guys taking it. Time was running down, and if Dwayne gets there for the contest, maybe they don’t get the shot off and it’s a whole different scenario.”
He didn’t miss, though, and a tying 3-pointer by Boyd bounced away at the horn as the Cajuns (4-4) suffered a third straight narrow loss on an opponent’s floor this season. In earlier games against Dayton and Xavier, the Cajun squad was also tied in the final two minutes.
Arizona, improving to 37-1 in all-time Fiesta Bowl Classic play, led 65-57 on Chris Rodgers’ two free throws with 6:03 showing, but Mitchell had an inside basket and an alley-oop dunk surrounding a Landry three-pointer that cut the margin to one point with 4:51 left.
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(AP Photo/John Miller)
