Cats attack

SALT LAKE CITY – Gabe York scored five of his 12 points in the final 2 minutes as No. 7 Arizona scored the last eight points to rally past No. 13 Utah 63-57 on Saturday night.

Brandon Taylor made a 3-pointer with 1:57 remaining to give Utah a 57-55 lead. York then drew Jakob Poeltl’s fifth foul and made one free throw and then rebounded his miss on the second attempt and put it in to give the Wildcats a 58-57 lead with 1:39 to play.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who had 10 points, made 3 of 4 free throws in the final minute and York hit two more to clinch the Wildcats’ 13th straight win over Utah (22-6, 12-4 Pac-12).

Kaleb Tarczewski led Arizona (26-3, 14-2) with 13 points while Stanley Johnson had 12 points and 11 rebounds. The Wildcats now lead the conference standings by two games with two games remaining.

After dominating Utah 69-51 earlier in the season thanks to a big rebounding advantage, the Wildcats again bullied the Utes on the boards, 44-35, to overcome 33-percent shooting.

Delon Wright had 17 points and Jordan Loveridge scored 10 before fouling out as the Utes finished the season 16-1 at home.

Taylor, Utah’s second leading scorer, got his first points of the game on a 3-pointer to put the Utes up 47-41, with 8:11 left.

But York hit a 3 and Hollis-Jefferson dunked to draw within one point again. It was back-and-forth from there as the game had seven lead changes in the last 7 minutes.

Under considerable harassment from the Utes, the Wildcats missed their first 10 field goal attempts of the second half before Johnson stole the ball and made a layup.

The buzz for a college basketball game in Salt Lake City hadn’t been this intense since the Dec. 31, 1996 matchup between No. 7 Utah and No. 2 Wake Forest, when future No. 1 NBA draft pick Tim Duncan scored 23 points and future No. 2 pick Keith Van Horn tallied 24 in the Deacons’ 70-59 win.

Arizona jumped out to a 17-8 lead but the Utes closed to within 29-28 at the half.