Arizona takes big step forward with Bay Area sweep

PHOENIX Arizona is back. In not quite 48 hours, the Wildcats changed the complexion of not only their season but the Pac-12 race with their best road trip of the year. Arizona used a dominant defensive effort to hold Stanford to 24.6 percent shooting from the field in a 56-43 victory Saturday afternoon, completing a sweep of the Bay Area schools. Neither Stanford nor California had lost a Pac-12 home game until the Wildcats dropped in. After an emotional 78-74 victory over California on Thursday night, the Wildcats took the satarch out of Stanford with a 21-6 closing run. That came after forward Solomon Hill picked up his fourth personal foul with 11:32 remaining, seemingly leaving the Wildcats even more short-handed since they already were without injured Kevin Parrom and Jordin Mayes. Instead, the Wildcats responded with a defensive toughness that limited Stanford to two field goals in the final 9:10, both of those coming after the Wildcats used a 10-0 run to take a 45-37 lead. The defensive effort was highlighted when Nick Johnson made breakaway slam after a steal and tip ahead by Josiah Turner to make it 52-43 in the final minute. "We were resilient," Arizona coach Sean Miller said on his post-game radio show on the ArizonaIMG Sports Network. "Winning a conference game on the road has a lot to do with your belief in each other and how hard you work and how tough you are. We had all those elements going our way. "On the road, you have to play great defense. Right now, we're doing it. Our defense is something that has been a constant even in some of our tougher moments. We'll be in every game because of our defense." The victory also reversed a recent Wildcats' trend. Arizona had won the first game of the last three Pac-12 weekend series before dropping the second game, losing those games by two, one and two points. But a one-point loss to Washington on Tony Wroten's blocked shot at McKale Center a week ago seemed to have the carryover effect of a mosquito bite. "When we on the plane in Tucson, I don't know if we had a lot of believers that we would be able to win even one game on this trip, let alone two, but we prepared well. We put the Washington loss behind us," Miller said. Suddenly, the Pac-12 race takes on new meaning. Washington remains a game in front, but Arizona (16-8, 7-4) pulled itself a lot closer to the top and still has a game remaining against the Huskies. Not only are the Wildcats tied fourth place in the league standings, they also own a tie-breaker against both Stanford and Cal by winning the only game against each. Because of the unbalanced schedule created by the addition of Colorado and Utah, neither Bay Area school plays at McKale Center this season. The tiebreaker could prove critical in the seeding for the conference tournament, in which the top four teams receive a bye. With Parrom out for the year and guard Mayes' status in question because of an foot injury suffered against Cal, the Wildcats could especially benefit from a first-round bye. Mayes missed the final 14 minutes against Cal and did not play Saturday. Kyle Fogg followed his season-high 23 points at Cal with 14 points, including three 3-pointers, making him 8 for 13 on threes on the Bay Area trip. Fogg also had two of the blocked shots against Stanford, and with freshmen Johnson and Turner stifled the Cardinal guards on the perimeter. Starting guards Chasson Randle and Aaron Bright made 8 of 30 field goal attempts. Big man Josh Owens 10 points, six rebounds was the only Cardinal shot better than 29 percent from the floor. The Wildcats had a season-high eight blocked shots, four by freshman Angelo Chol, whose step-up weekend began with eight points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in 16 minutes against California. Arizona had six steals, and the smaller Wildcats also outrebounded the Cardinal, 43-40, one of the best rebounding teams in the conference. It was a full-squad effort, and Johnson and Turner had seven rebounds apiece. "We talked a lot to those two guys about that. To get 14 rebounds from two players are 6-foot-2 freshmen, they're doing what we asked. That's what happens sometimes when you are small. You have a bigger guy on the box blocked out. When the ball hits the rim, it frees up an alley for the guards to get it," Miller said. Arizona had the third Pac-12 road sweep of the year, and it has been involved in all three. Oregon and Washington won both games at the Arizona schools, but the Wildcats are the first road team to beat two teams that were over .500. Follow Jack Magruder on Twitter