Core Pete explains what happened in the locker room at halftime during the Arizona-Purdue game.
Arizona star Koa Pete talks about how team leaders stabilized the Wildcats at halftime of the Elite Eight game against Purdue and led them to victory.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Arizona’s drought is over.
The top-seeded Wildcats continued their March Madness run with a come-from-behind 79-64 victory over second-seeded Purdue in the Elite Eight, advancing to the Final Four for the first time in 25 years.
The game was a back-and-forth affair in the early going, but a run just before halftime gave Purdue a seven-point lead and put the Wildcats on the back foot for the first time in the NCAA Tournament.
Although it alarmed Arizona’s heavy presence and evoked March’s past trauma, it was in no position to scare these “Cats.” This season, they led 5-0 at halftime.
Make it 6-0.
Arizona came out of the locker room nervous, but Purdue couldn’t sustain its hot shooting. A 16-3 run gave the Wildcats the lead and they held that lead the rest of the way, outscoring Purdue in the closing stages.
The Wildcats outscored the Boilermakers 48-26 with 20 minutes remaining, shooting 51.6 percent from the field during that time, while Purdue shot 32.1 percent on just one 3-pointer in the final minute after making seven 3-pointers in the first half.
Four Arizona starters scored in double figures, led by Koa Peat, who was named the West’s most outstanding player, with 20 points.
In the end, Arizona had its most impressive performance of the tournament thus far, winning all four games by 10 points or more, breaking the March curse that has hung over the program for most of the 21st century.
The Wildcats last made it to the Final Four in 2001 under coach great Lute Olsen, but since then, the Wildcats have failed to reach the stage each time despite being one of the winningest programs in the country. Arizona has lost six straight Elite Eight appearances, two of which were as a No. 1 seed.
The Wildcats have had several NBA stars with championship potential over the years, but this well-rounded unit ends that spell. All they needed to do that was win a program-record 36 games.
Purdue will return home to Indiana, except it won’t play in nearby Indianapolis, denying it a spot in the Final Four for the second time in three years after starting the season as the No. 1 team in the country.
The Boilermakers’ failure to win their first national championship, leaving Indiana as the last team remaining, guarantees a team will not win its home state title, the first since UCLA won in San Diego in 1975.
The loss also preserved an unlucky March winning streak, and Purdue fell to 0-10 overall against No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Boilermakers guard Braden Smith finishes his career as the NCAA’s all-time assist leader with 1,103 career dimes.
Instead, Arizona State will head to Indianapolis, a city synonymous with its history, where it won its only national championship in 1997. The Wildcats will face the winner of Michigan and Tennessee in the national semifinals for a second chance to win the championship.
