Ncaa Basketball: Arizona’s Road Win at No. 2 Houston Hands Wildcats the Big 12 Lead and Reshapes the Race

Arizona’s victory at Houston immediately changes who is chasing and who is chased in the conference: the Wildcats now sit alone atop the Big 12 and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker after a 73-66 road win. For ncaa basketball followers, the game rewrites the standings math with four games to go and shifts momentum heading into a busy finish for both programs.

Ncaa Basketball impact: standings, tiebreaker and momentum

The result moves Arizona to 25-2 overall and 12-2 in conference play, giving the Wildcats sole possession of first place with four games remaining. It also hands Arizona the tiebreaker over Houston—23-4, 11-3—since this was their only regular-season meeting. Houston travels to No. 9 Kansas on Monday trying to avoid a three-game losing streak, and that trip now carries added consequence for the Cougars' run after this defeat.

How the game unfolded (key sequences and turning points)

Arizona led 36-31 at halftime. Midway through the second half a 12-0 Arizona run — sparked after Houston went scoreless for nearly eight minutes — put the Wildcats ahead for good. Houston took its final lead at 48-46 with 12: 57 remaining, then went 4 of 19 and missed 11 straight in the second half as Arizona closed the game out. The contest finished 73-66 on the road at the Fertitta Center; this was only the second time the Cougars lost there in Big 12 play since joining the conference in 2023-24.

Player performances that decided the game

• Anthony Dell’Orso: 22 points off the bench and a career-high four steals; he played 34 minutes and led all scorers.
• Jaden Bradley: 17 points, including 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1: 10.
• Ivan Kharchenkov: 16 points and a crucial layup that tied the game before the run.
• Kingston Flemings (freshman): 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
• Emanuel Sharp: 14 points on 2-of-11 shooting.

Injuries, availability and rotations

Koa Peat missed his second straight game with a muscle strain in his lower leg area. Dwayne Aristode sat out a third game with an illness. With Dell’Orso logging heavy minutes, Sidi Gueye and Evan Nelson combined for 17 minutes and even subbed in for each other late as an offense/defense move after Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas both fouled out. Awaka and Krivas combined for just 11 points but totaled 11 rebounds and three of Arizona’s nine steals.

Stats, free throws and turnovers that swung the edge

Arizona shot 20 of 31 from the free-throw line overall, missing five in a row late in the first half but going 10 of 12 down the stretch. Houston shot 35. 7 percent for the game, turned it over 12 times (they averaged a Division I-low 8. 2 per game), and those turnovers generated 16 points for the Wildcats. A late stretch where Arizona missed seven of eight shots and Bradley missed two free throws gave way to the decisive 12-0 run that produced a 60-50 lead with 5: 30 remaining.

Here's the part that matters for roster and strategy: Arizona’s defense produced the stops and Houston’s shot droughts and extra turnovers made the difference, not a single burst of scoring.

Brayden Burries, who needed an IV after Wednesday’s win over BYU, had seven points on 1-of-5 shooting but made 3 of 4 free throws in the last minute and scored four during that 12-0 stretch, including a putback in traffic.

It’s easy to overlook, but Tommy Lloyd has now beaten every team in the Big 12; it took four years and three tries to get past Houston, with prior losses in the matchups including the 2022 Sweet 16 and last year’s Big 12 Tournament final. That history frames this victory as more than a single-game swing.

One fragment in the original notes ends midword: "Houston finally ended its droug" — unclear in the provided context how that sentence completed.

The real question now is how each team responds in the remaining schedule: Arizona carries tiebreaker leverage and top spot with four games left, while Houston must travel to Kansas on Monday and try to halt a potential three-game skid. For ncaa basketball followers, this result tightens the late-season calculus and amplifies pressure on upcoming conference matchups.

Writer’s aside: What’s easy to miss is how much of the outcome hinged on substitution patterns and foul trouble for both Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas; those rotations reshaped minutes and defensive matchups when the game mattered most.