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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Arizona finally is leaving Maui with a
championship trophy.
|  | | It might have been a foul in Arizona's Luke Walton, top, against Illinios' Lucas Johnson, but at least with wasn't on some ticky-tack call.
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The Wildcats (No. 2 ESPN/USA Today; No. 1 Associated Press), who finished second in their two
previous appearances in the Maui Invitational, held off No. 8
Illinois 79-76 in the title game Wednesday night.
Playing all three games without preseason All-America center
Loren Woods, who was suspended for six games for NCAA rules
violations, Arizona (3-0) beat Chaminade and Dayton before handing
Illinois (3-1) its first defeat under coach Bill Self.
"It would have been easy to say 'We don't have our big guy so
it's going to be tough,' but that's not something you'll ever hear
from these guys," Arizona coach Lute Olson said.
Arizona lost to Kentucky on a tip-in at the buzzer in the 1993
championship game and in 1997, playing as the No. 1 team in
the country, lost to Duke in the final.
This could have been another crushing defeat as Illinois, which
trailed by 15 points with 3½ minutes to play, used a last-minute
3-point blitz to pull to 77-76 with 15 seconds remaining.
Jason Gardner made two free throws with 11 seconds left to give
Arizona a 79-76 lead. Illinois had two last chances.
First, Cory Bradford's 3-point attempt from the corner was
blocked by Luke Walton and went out of bounds with 1.2 seconds
left. Sergio McClain then tried to inbound the ball, but Gilbert
Arenas knocked it into the air and the buzzer sounded.
"Coach always tells us to keep our hands up to get a
deflection," Gardner said. "At the end we just did the things
Coach is always preaching to us."
Gardner scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half to lead the
Wildcats, while Richard Jefferson added 18 and tournament most valuable player Michael Wright had 16 points and nine rebounds.
Despite not having the 7-foot-1 Woods, Arizona did an impressive defensive job on Illinois' front line, which combined for 40 points
and 27 rebounds in the Fighting Illini's semifinal victory over No. 6
Maryland.
Junior forwards Jefferson and Wright were a big part of the victory in a choppy, foul-plagued game.
"In the second half we did a great job on their inside guys,"
Olson said. "You know our inside guys are going to play hard. I
thought our second half was really an outstanding half. We went
hard to the boards and defensively did a great job."
Frank Williams had 27 points, including eight in the final
minute, for Illinois, while the front line of Marcus Griffin, Brian
Cook and McClain combined for just 14 points and 15 rebounds.
"They did a great job of trapping down in the post and our big
guys weren't effective," Self said. "The last four, five minutes
we decided to spread the floor with a smaller lineup, and I thought
we were a better team late. But I don't know if we could have
played that way the whole game.
"When you're down 15 in the second half, and then have a chance to tie the game, is pretty remarkable. The only thing I might
change is that we put the wrong guy on the free-throw line. It
would have been a lot different being down one or two at the end
instead of three."
Arizona used an 8-0 run to take a 49-40 lead with 14:54 to play. Illinois closed to 55-50 with 8:57 left on two free throws by
Griffin.
Arenas sandwiched layups around a 3-pointer by Jefferson to make it 62-50 with 7:35 left and the Wildcats were ahead by as many as 15 points before Williams led the final surge. He and Sean
Harrington combined for three 3s in a 9-1 run that pulled Illinois
to 75-74 with 25 seconds remaining.
"We talked before the game that this would be a war on the
boards," Olson said. "This was a great basketball game between
two teams playing as hard as two teams can. Don't forget it was the
third straight day for these teams in a gym that is hot and humid
and makes it harder."
The first half ended in a furious four minutes of runs.
Harrington hit consecutive 3-pointers to bring Illinois into a
31-31 tie with 3:52 to play.
Arizona then went on an 8-0 run that was started by a
three-point play by Wright and capped by a 3-pointer by Gardner -- his fifth of the half -- with 2:50 left.
Illinois closed with a 7-0 run as Damir Krupalija sandwiched a
layup and a steal and an impressive dunk just before the buzzer
around a 3-pointer by Bradford to make it 39-38 at halftime.
Harrington had 15 points and Krupalija had 13.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Illinois Clubhouse
Arizona Clubhouse
NCAA denies Woods appeal; he'll miss 6 games
Arizona routs Dayton, advances to third straight Maui final
All work, no play for No. 8 Illinois in Maui
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Eugene Edgerson fights two defenders for the layup against Illinois.
avi: 931 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jason Gardner pulls up for the three-point jumper.
avi: 819 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Richard Jefferson hits the fallaway three-point jumper over the Illinois defense.
avi: 642 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Arizona coach Lute Olson talked to ESPN about the versatility of his team.
wav: 313 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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