SEATTLE - Terrence Ross made sure on a day to honor Washington's seniors that his sophomore season at home finished with an exclamation.
Ross scored 15 of his 25 points in the first half, Tony Wroten added 22 and Washington pulled away in the final five minutes for a 79-70 win over Arizona on Saturday to cling to a share of first place in the Pac-12.
For the first time in their last four meetings, the Wildcats and Huskies didn't decide the outcome on the final possession. That was just fine by the Huskies (19-8, 12-3 Pac-12), who close the regular season with three straight road games.
Ross was nearly perfect inside the 3-point line, hitting 10 of the 11 shots he took inside the arc. He was 11 of 19 shooting overall, shaking off a sore shoulder and sore ankle.
Nick Johnson led Arizona (19-9, 10-5) with 20 points, but the Wildcats saw their five-game win streak snapped.
Ross left the game with 11 seconds remaining to chants of "One More Year!" from the home crowd. Ross is desired by NBA scouts who believe his 6-foot-6 frame and outside shooting ability translates well to the next level.
Ross wasn't very good on 3-pointers, but he was great within 20 feet. Ross scored on pull-ups, lobs and even a rebound follow basket as he was awkwardly falling out of bounds. Meanwhile, Wroten was a bull as Arizona could not keep the freshman out of the lane. He made just 8 of 22 shots, but grabbed nine rebounds, many of those his own misses.
C.J. Wilcox added a key 11 points, nine of those coming in the final 7:10 to help the Huskies pull away.
Solomon Hill and Jesse Perry both finished with 13 points for the Wildcats and Kyle Fogg added 11, but the Wildcats suffered their first loss since losing to Washington late last month in Tucson.
The previous three matchups between the Wildcats and Huskies all came down to the final possession. Almost a year ago to the day, Derrick Williams blocked Darnell Gant's potential go-ahead basket in the final seconds of an 87-86 Arizona win in Tucson. Washington got a measure of revenge on Isaiah Thomas' step-back game-winning jumper in overtime of the Pac-10 tournament title game that gave the Huskies a second straight conference tournament title.
Then came their matchup a month ago in Tucson when the Huskies led by double-digits late, only to see Arizona charge back and pull within two. On the final possession, Wroten came from a help position to block Josiah Turner's potential game-tying layup for the 69-67 Washington victory.
This game appeared headed toward a similar conclusion until Wilcox got hot. Washington took an eight-point lead when Wroten windmill slammed over Angelo Chol with 8:52 left, a dunk likely to get plenty of replays. On the next Arizona possession, Ross picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. When Ross came back with 5:39 left, the Huskies lead was up to nine thanks to consecutive 3-pointers from Wilcox, just the second and third made 3-pointers by the Huskies. Washington was 1 of 15 from behind the arc until Wilcox's back-to-back treys and he added a tip-in of Aziz N'Diaye's miss to put the Huskies up 72-61 with five minutes left, which matched the Huskies largest lead.
Arizona went nearly five minutes without a field goal and Wroten's three-point play pushed the lead to 12, capping the Huskies eighth win in their last nine games.
The Wildcats were fortunate hang around for as long as they did.
Arizona coach Sean Miller erupted off the bench and on to the floor when N'Diaye was not called for traveling when he essentially passed to himself on a stunning coast-to-coast breakaway dunk with 12:34 left in the first half. The dunk and ensuing technical free throws gave Washington an early 21-14 lead and the lead eventually widened to 11.
Arizona started chipping away from there. Brendon Lavender hit a pair of 3s off the bench, Perry added a 3-pointer of his own and Washington scored just one point in the final four minutes of the half as its lead was trimmed to 39-37 at the break. After the opening seconds of the second half, Arizona got no closer than three.
