Pac-12 Basketball Scores: Inept Officiating Finally Costs Someone A Game

This week marks the first week of conference play for the Pac-12 and, while Oregon waits until Sunday for a Civil War match-up in Corvallis, the rest of the conference got started on Thursday night. Here is what transpired:

No. 3 Arizona 92, Colorado 83 (OT)

Surprise! The ineptitude of the Pac-12 officials finally cost somebody a game. Colorado led No. 3 Arizona by ten in Tucson with four minutes to go, before giving it all back. Still, in a tie game, Colorado's Sabatino Chen hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to apparently win the game for the Buffaloes. Replay showed pretty conclusively that the ball was out of his hands with .01 seconds to go--but the officials, for reasons unknown to anyone, called the shot off, and Arizona cruised in overtime. Mark Lyons led the Wildcats with 24, while Askia Booker paced Colorado with 18. In the meantime, I'm begging you, Larry Scott, do something about the awful officiating in this conference.

UCLA 79, Cal 65

UCLA continued its in-season resurgence, having little trouble at home with the California Golden Bears. UCLA went up ten at halftime, and the game was essentially over. Kyle Anderson led the Bruins with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Meanwhile, Cal sits at 8-5, clearly the most disappointing team in the conference this season.

USC 71, Stanford 69

If Cal is the most disappointing team in the conference, Stanford is a strong No. 2. The Cardinal held a nine-point lead at the half, but the Trojans slowly chipped away, coming out with a two-point victory. Jio Fontain led SC with 15 points, including a pair of free throws with seven-seconds left. Stanford had two attempts at a game-tying shot, missing both.

Arizona St. 55, Utah 54 (OT)

Utah is much improved from the horrible squad they put forth last season, but still came short in overtime in Tempe. In this boring, low scoring contest, Jahii Carson hit a three-pointer with a minute left to send the game into overtime, then hit a layup with 35 seconds left in OT for the game-winner. Utah had three shots at a game-winner in the closing second of OT, failing to convert.

On Tap This Weekend:

Saturday:

Stanford at UCLA, 12:00 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network

Utah at No. 3 Arizona, 2:00 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network

Washington at Washington St., 6:30 p.m. PT, ESPNU

California at USC, 9:00 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network

Sunday:

Colorado at Arizona St., 5:00 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network

Oregon at Oregon St., 7:00 p.m. PT, FSN/ROOT