Arizona Arizona/California California Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

The Wildcats (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 8 AP) held off California 78-76 Saturday night, sending them into the NCAA Tournament with a six-game winning streak.

Loren Woods had 22 points and nine rebounds, Michael Wright had 20 points and Gilbert Arenas added 18 for Arizona (23-7, 15-3 Pac-10), which upset No. 1 Stanford on Thursday night.

"Probably the thing that makes me the happiest is the play we got from Loren Woods today," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "He was much more aggressive and I felt like that was the missing link for us."

Jason Gardner's 3-pointer with 59 seconds remaining gave Arizona a 77-74 lead. Sean Lampley responded with two free throws for Cal, then Richard Jefferson made the second of two free throws with 12 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 78-76 lead.

Lampley missed a 12-foot turnaround jumper at the buzzer.

Lampley had 27 points for Cal (20-10, 11-7), which finished tied with Southern California for fourth in the Pac-10 and hopes for an NCAA at-large berth. The senior forward said coming so close to Arizona is a positive at this time of the season.

"It will give us a boost if we make the tournament, whichever tournament we make," Lampley said. "I'm just going to wait until tomorrow (to find out)."

The Wildcats were No. 1 in the preseason, but were just 5-3 in mid-December and 8-5 after a home loss to Stanford in early January. That defeat came in the absence of Olson, who missed five games surrounding the death of his wife, Bobbi, from ovarian cancer.

Arizona also struggled this season with the NCAA suspensions of Woods for six games and Jefferson for one game.

Since Olson returned to the sidelines in mid-January, the Wildcats are 13-2. Their only losses during that span were at Oregon and an overtime defeat at UCLA.

"Tough games get you ready for tough contests down the line," Olson said.

Then he referred to the tumultuous season as a whole.

"What doesn't break you makes you tougher."

Arizona led 38-33 at halftime, then built its lead to 10 points as Woods had seven points during a 13-8 run to open the second half.

But Cal responded with 10 straight points, tying the game at 51 on Ryan Forehan-Kelly's 3-pointer with 10 1/2 minutes left – his first points of the game.

Wright then took control, powering his way inside for a couple of baskets. Woods made two free throws and, after a Cal bucket, Wright scored again to give Arizona a 59-53 lead.

A short jumper by Woods gave the Wildcats a 64-57 lead with 6:25 remaining, but Lampley then scored seven straight points – including a three-point play with 4:12 remaining – to tie the score at 64.

The teams traded 3-pointers, and Cal took a 72-71 lead with 2:09 left on Shantay Legans' 3-pointer.

Brian Wethers hit two free throws with 1:50 remaining to give Cal a 74-72 lead, but Woods scored on a layup with 1:34 left to tie the game again and set the stage for Gardner's decisive 3-pointer.

Arenas had 13 points in the first half for the Wildcats. Lampley, the Pac-10's leading scorer this season, had 10 at halftime for Cal.

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