Prior to Saturday, Arizona was 43-1 under Tommy Lloyd when it scored 90 points in a game.
After facing BYU, however, that record is now 43-2.
Lloyd’s No. 19-ranked Wildcats fell in dramatic, 96-95 fashion to the Cougars Saturday night in Tucson, with a controversial foul call leading to the eventual game-winning free throws from Richie Saunders.
“(BYU is) a team that obviously plays in a lot of spread ball screen stuff, and they were really effective at it tonight,” Lloyd told reporters following the contest.
“Our guys just didn’t have the sense of urgency they needed on some of those closeouts ... our guys just didn’t do a good enough job defensively executing, and that’s disappointing.”
The Tony Padilla-led officiating crew was quite active on Saturday, with BYU and Arizona being called for 39 total fouls in 40 minutes of play.
The final foul call of the night featured Wildcats forward Trey Townsend being whistled on a frantic last-ditch shot attempt from Saunders with three seconds remaining, sending Saunders to the line to put the Cougars ahead by one point.
Upon replay, it didn’t appear that Townsend made much contact with Saunders on his shot attempt, but given the frequency of fouls called in the game, the whistle wasn’t much of a surprise.
Lloyd wasn’t shy about his feelings regarding the seemingly phantom foul, but he did acknowledge that it wasn’t why he felt his team came up short.
“It’s a bad call,” Lloyd said. “I mean, whatever, what am I going to say? You hate for a game to be decided by that. It’s the Big 12, and the guy who called it is one of the best refs, so we’ve got to live with it.
“But step back, they scored (94) points up to that point on our home court,” Lloyd continued. “That’s the problem, that’s the problem. Me and my staff and our players, that’s the problem, not the officials. It would have been great to steal a victory if they don’t call that, but still, don’t put yourself in that position.”
Arizona had previously defeated the Cougars in Provo on Feb. 4, when BYU faded late and could not keep up with the Wildcats’ high octane offense.
In Saturday’s rematch, Kevin Young’s squad came ready for a shootout, hitting 55.4% of its shots and 45.2% of its 3-pointers in a hostile road environment for the win.
“I told (the team), I played against BYU for years,” Lloyd said. “They have older dudes. They’re going to respond. They’re going to come in with a maturity to this game, so we have to have that. We didn’t and they did, and that’s the result.
“... They beat us today. They made some better adjustments than we did. Their coach did a great job. Their players played with more urgency. Congrats to BYU.”