No. 2 Arizona throttles No. 16 USC to win Pac-12 title

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A return to regular-season Pac-12 Conference glory for No. 2 Arizona was not an occasion for wild celebrations, loud roars or proud proclamations.

A convincing 91-71 victory over No. 16 Southern California was more of an arm-around-your-shoulder moment as the Wildcats won their first regular-season conference title in four seasons. Arizona used a business-like approach to knock of the second-place Trojans with the help of a little perspective.

Bennedict Mathurin scored 19 points and Kerr Kriisa added 18 in the rout, while Justin Kier scored 12 points as the Wildcats (26-3, 16-2 Pac-12) rebounded from an out-of-character double-digit loss at Colorado over the weekend.

"We know who we are; we took that ‘L’ to the head," Kier said about Saturday’s eye-opening 79-63 loss at Colorado. "We knew we had to fix some things from that game but we weren’t too down on ourselves because we know we could have played better."

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Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin (0) smiles as his team takes a lead over Southern California during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Los Angeles.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

First-year Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd reminded his team that conference titles are expected for a program rich in tradition. His team made it look like it had been in this position before.

"Our guys are built for it," Lloyd said. "They were excited to play and you saw that look in their eye early. I felt good about practice (Monday). I felt great about shootaround today. I was trying to not get too excited because that doesn’t always translate to a win. This