ANAHEIM, Calif. - Nick Johnson scored all of his 15 points in the last 2:45, after missing his first 10 shots, and Arizona rallied to beat San Diego State 70-64 Thursday night and advance to the final eight of the NCAA tournament.
Aaron Gordon and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored 15 points each for the top-seeded Wildcats (33-4). They next play Wisconsin in the West Regional final Saturday.
Hollis-Jefferson fouled out with 4:42 to play, but Johnson made his first basket a couple minutes later and carried the Wildcats across the finish line after they trailed much of the second half.
The Aztecs controlled the boards 37-29, with three of them often battling at once on the defensive end. Josh Davis had 14 rebounds for SDSU.
Johnson, the Pac-12 player of the year, finished 2 of 12 from the field, but made all 10 of his free throws.
The Wildcats started getting some of the offensive rebounds that eluded them much of the game, and Kaleb Tarczewski scored after his teammates grabbed two on the same possession to keep Arizona ahead 54-51.
The Aztecs built their lead back to eight points early in the second half, with Thames scoring six of their first eight points. The Wildcats scored six in a row, capped by Gordon's one-handed dunk off York's alley-oop pass on a turnover by Davis, and Hollis-Jefferson added two free throws to leave them trailing 42-40.
Neither team led by more than four points until the Aztecs closed the half on a 12-6 run to lead 32-28. Polee ignited the SDSU fans when he stepped in front of Johnson, swiped the ball and tore downcourt for a huge dunk. He and Skylar Shepard had four points each in the spurt.