Working overtime

I guess Thursday was all about going a little extra.

Let's see why.

1. Pelle Larsson saves Arizona in 3 OT

The Utah-Colorado double is a brutal combo because of the elevation gains. But Arizona was making it look easy Thursday night in Sal Lake City (about 4,700 feet above sea level), leading by 16 at half.

Maybe it caught up in the second half.

The Utes held Arizona scoreless for 4+ minutes and with 6:09 remaining, it looked like it would come down to the wire. But triple overtime?!

First it was Utah Gabe Madsen at the end of regulation.

Then Caleb Love (19 points, 10 rebounds) had chances to win at the end of the first and second OT, but miss both. His basket in the third extra period helped the Wildcats finally prevail, 105-99. Utah went scoreless for the first 205 seconds of OT, which proved to be the difference.

“We made one or two small adjustments in that third overtime,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said.

Pelle Larsson was the standout, scoring six of his 27 points in the final overtime, along with seven rebounds and assists. It was a career-high performance for the former Ute, with Lloyd noting the meaning of this game for Larsson, who began his career at Utah.

“I know this game is never easy for him because he’s not one of those guys that left Utah unhappy. He had a good experience here. I know coming back here, revenge in Pelle’s language probably isn’t a strong word, so I think it was kind of an emotional game for him. To see him play well and get us over the top was awesome.”

Kylan Boswell finished with 16 points but did have to leave for a bit with an apparent shoulder injury. He did return and after the game Lloyd said doctors cleared the return.

There were two big benefits of this win for Arizona (18-5, 9-3 in Pac-12). One, they won a tough road game when Love shot poorly. More importantly, they got a road win — a Quad 1 at that — which kept them in first and bolstered their NCAA Tournament seeding profile.

As for Utah (15-8, 6-6), this was a missed opportunity. It got 27 points and 15 rebounds from star forward Braden Carlson, along with another triple-double from guard Deivion Smith (14-11-10).

Now firmly on the bubble, Utah has winnable games the rest of the way. If they ultimately miss an at-large berth, Thursday’s result would loom large.

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2. FAU fades in 2nd half, falls to UAB

Like with Arizona, FAU was in control on the road, leading UAB by seven at half. Yet the Owls’ offense went into a rut, leading to a back-and-forth second half. UAB missed a couple of point-blank shots just before OT, but Efram “Butta” Johnson ensured the same thing didn’t happen in overtime.

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