KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Caleb Love scored 27 points as Arizona knocked off No. 9 Texas Tech 86-80 in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament on Friday.
The Wildcats, the No. 3 seed, advanced to the championship game on Saturday and will face No. 1 seed Houston, ranked No. 2 in the country.
Houston won the only meeting between the teams, 62-58 on Feb. 15 in Tempe, Ariz.
Arizona (22-11) controlled play on the inside, outscoring Tech 40-28 in the paint.
Love was one of five Wildcats to score in double figures. KJ Lewis scored 15, Trey Townsend added 12 and Jaden Bradley and Henri Veesaar each had 10.
Texas Tech (25-8) had four players in double figures, led by Kevin Overton with 20 off the bench. Christian Anderson had 19 and Kerwin Walton had 13. But Arizona limited Big 12 Player of the Year JT Toppin to just 11 on 4-of-13 shooting from the field.
Arizona took control early in the second half, outscoring the Red Raiders 10-4 in the first 3:06 to grab a 57-43 lead. The Red Raiders got within single digits a few times, but kept stalling. It took a 7-0 run to put a scare in the Wildcats at 64-59.
The Red Raiders got within four three times down the stretch, but got no closer.
Arizona came out blistering, scoring the first nine points. But it didn’t take long for the Red Raiders to rally. Arizona led 19-13 before Texas Tech established its own 9-0 run to take a 3-point lead at the second media timeout.
The Wildcats pulled away again at the end of the first half and led 47-39 at intermission.
The Wildcats were led by Caleb Love with 17 at the break, hitting 3-of-4 from long range. The Red Raiders got 11 from Anderson and nine from Overton.
-David Smale, Field Level Media
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