Arizona vs. Oregon: Score, Twitter Reaction for Pac-12 Championship 2017

The No. 7 Arizona Wildcats avenged a 27-point February loss to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night, defeating the nation's No. 5 team 83-80 to win the Pac-12 tournament title at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Second-seeded Arizona secured its second Pac-12 tourney championship in three seasons, while top-seeded Oregon was denied a repeat.

With consecutive wins over UCLA and Oregon, the Wildcats may have put themselves in the conversation to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, no team has enjoyed more Pac-12 tournament success than Arizona throughout its history:

Sophomore guard Allonzo Trier was Arizona's unquestioned top player Saturday, pouring in 23 points to go along with eight rebounds and three assists.

Pac-12 Player of the Year Dillon Brooks scored 25 points for the Ducks, but Oregon's 43.1 percent shooting as a team couldn't contend with Arizona's 58.0 percent mark.

Oregon entered the game in the face of adversity. Senior forward Chris Boucher suffered a torn ACL on Friday, which will keep him out for the remainder of the season, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello.

That meant the Ducks were without their No. 3 scorer, No. 2 rebounder and leading shot-blocker.

Arizona carried a six-point lead into halftime on the strength of 52.0 percent shooting to just 35.7 percent for Oregon.

As pointed out by Shane Dale of ABC15 Arizona, Brooks provided essentially all of the offense for the Ducks in the opening half:

Arizona was far more balanced, but Trier led the way with 10 points, including a three-point play with less than one minute remaining in the half.

Trier was in excellent form, which prompted Bryan Fischer of Athlon Sports to suggest he could be the driving force behind a deep run for the Wildcats in the NCAA tournament:

For as strong as Trier played in the first half, forward Lauri Markkanen put up modest numbers with just two field goals made.

According to Zack Rosenblatt of the Arizona Daily Star, the first half featured some strange happenings for both teams:

Coming out of the locker room, Arizona went on an early 6-0 run to push its lead into double digits at 41-29 less than three minutes into the second half.

The Wildcats continued to click offensively and enlarged the lead to 49-35 at the 15:23 mark when Trier drilled a long three-pointer with the shot clock running out.

Oregon appeared to be playing uninspired basketball at that point, but Michael Yam of Pac-12 Network argued that Boucher's absence wasn't the only reason for their struggles:

Aaron J. Fentress of CSN Ducks believed Oregon was in danger of playing its way out of the game early in the second half:

The Ducks started to chip away at the deficit, however, with sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey emerging as the support Brooks desperately needed.

A Dylan Ennis layup just over midway through the second half made the score 60-56 in favor of Arizona and got the Oregon faithful involved for the first time in the half.

With Oregon showing signs of life, guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright stepped up with a clutch trifecta a couple of minutes later to get Arizona's lead back to eight.

Arizona held an eight-point lead until the final media timeout, leaving the Ducks with a significant mountain to climb.

After Oregon cut the lead to four, Jackson-Cartwright made another big basket, but Brooks answered immediately with a three to make it 78-75 in favor of the Wildcats with 1:37 left.

Following a Markkanen free throw to extend the lead to 79-75, he missed three in a row, and then Jackson-Cartwright missed two consecutive free throws as well.

Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports commented on Arizona's struggles closing out the game:

Oregon's Jordan Bell made the score 79-77 with 25 seconds remaining before Trier ended Arizona's free-throw drought with two makes to effectively end the game.

While Arizona looked shaky at times in the latter stages, beating two of the nation's top teams to win the Pac-12 title should provide a ton of momentum entering the NCAA tournament.

It may not be enough to knock Villanova, Kansas, North Carolina or Gonzaga from the No. 1 line, but the Wildcats at least gave the selection committee something to think about Sunday. 

Postgame Reaction

After winning one of the toughest conferences in the nation, Arizona head coach Sean Miller questioned if many gave his team a chance to do so, according to Greg Hanson of the Tucson Daily Star:

He also discussed how far his team has come since it lost to convincingly to Oregon over one month ago:

The absence of Boucher was the biggest storyline in Saturday's game, and both Brooks and Bell described the impact it had, per Hayden Herrera of NBC 16:

Regardless of the Pac-12 title game result, both Arizona and Oregon appear to be legitimate Final Four threats.