No. 11 Arizona falters late in loss to Providence

FULLERTON, Calif. -- Sean Miller had a feeling the Arizona Wildcats were due for a fall.

It came at the hands of Kris Dunn and Providence in a 69-65 loss Friday night in the semifinals of the DirecTV Wooden Legacy.

The 11th-ranked Wildcats didn't look good against Santa Clara, eking out a 75-73 win over the winless Broncos in their opening game Thursday.

"I've never felt worse after a win last night," Miller said. "After we watched the film a number of times, it became apparent that for whatever reason we showed up thinking we were much better than we really were."

The Wildcats (5-1) were relegated to the third-place game Sunday against Boise State.

Ryan Anderson had 27 points and 12 rebounds and Gabe York added 10 points. Arizona played without starting center Kaleb Tarczewski, who hurt his left ankle Thursday.

"It's definitely different out there without him," Anderson said. "Our big guy unit is all about playing hard and crashing the glass. That's something we tried to do. Obviously, it helps to have Kaleb in there."

Dunn scored Providence's last 10 points, including a go-ahead jumper with 31 seconds left. He finished with 19 points and Ben Bentil scored a career-high 21 points despite foul trouble.

Dunn picked up his fourth foul during a 22-9 run by the Wildcats that led to their biggest lead, 58-51. Anderson scored nine points in the spurt that was capped by York's 3-pointer.

The Friars ran off eight straight to lead 59-58.

Anderson scored and York hit another 3 to give Arizona its last lead, 63-59.

That's when Dunn started his scoring spree. Anderson's two free throws in the middle of it tied the game for the sixth and last time at 65-all.

Dunn hit a turnaround jumper for a 67-65 lead, and his fastbreak jumper off Parker Jackson-Cartwright's turnover sealed the win. It was one of a season-high 21 turnovers by Arizona.

"We learned a lot over the last two days," Miller said. "One of the things we've learned is that room for error isn't there right now. Our effort level has to be there on every play. Tonight it was. We might have made some dumb plays, but I'm very, very proud of our team."

Neither team led by more than four points in the first half, when Dunn was limited to six points in 9 minutes because of two fouls. Arizona led 34-33 at the break on a jumper by Kadeem Allen.

Providence: The Friars' point guard in their 1997 NCAA Tournament regional final loss to Arizona was God Shammgod, now a grad assistant for the team.

Arizona: The last time the Wildcats played the Friars, Arizona won 96-92 in OT to advance to the 1997 Final Four. The Wildcats beat Kentucky to win the national title that year.

Providence plays No. 3 Michigan State in the title game Sunday night at Honda Center in nearby Anaheim.

Arizona plays Boise State in the third-place game at Honda Center.