Tucson, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Aaron Gordon tallied 19 points with a career- best 15 rebounds in third-ranked Arizona's 79-66 rout of Stanford in front of a sold out McKale Center crowd on Sunday to claim the outright regular season Pac-12 crown.
T.J. McConnell added 14 points and Nick Johnson scored 13 for Arizona (27-2, 14-2 Pac-12), which finished unbeaten at home for the second time in the last four seasons. The Wildcats have won four straight overall and nine in a row over Stanford.
"We came out ready to go," Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. "Our backcourt, Nick (Johnson) and T.J. (McConnell) really imposed their will on offense and defense."
Josh Huestis finished with 22 points and 12 boards in the Stanford's (18-10, 9-7) second straight defeat.
The Wildcats led wire-to-wire this one, with McConnell opening the scoring with a pull-up jumper at 18:48. Gordon threw down a pair of alley-oops during the sizzling start, the second of which put Arizona in front, 12-4, 4 1/2 minutes in.
It was 14-11 when Elliott Pitts' corner 3 sparked a 9-2 UA burst. The Wildcats then used their hounding defense to create offense. Johnson's explosive block on Chasson Randle led to a Gordon transition layup at 6:57. Rondae Hollis- Jefferson also got in on the action when he swatted Randle at the rim, grabbed the rebound and took it coast-to-coast for a reverse layup. Another Hollis- Jefferson block propelled Gordon's scoop shot for a 37-21 margin late in the first half.
Anthony Brown scored the final five points of the period to pull the Cardinal within 13 points, 41-28, at halftime.
Arizona led comfortably for most of the second half, with a decisive surge midway through the period all but putting the game away. Gabe York was the catalyst, capping a stretch of eight Wildcats points in just over a minute with his three-point play at 13:29.
York then netted three 3-pointers before Gordon brought the crowd to its feet by faking a behind-the-back pass in transition and banking in a sweeping shot to make it 68-43.
Arizona stumbled down the stretch, allowing Stanford to pull within 11 before Johnson and McConnell both made two straight from the charity stripe to seal it.
Game Notes
Arizona outscored Stanford 15-4 in second chance points and 16-0 in transition ... Arizona's bench outscored Stanford's, 25-4 ... The Wildcats visit Oregon State on Wednesday and Oregon on Saturday to finish the regular season ... Brown and Randle scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, for the Cardinal.
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