LOS ANGELES — Frank Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers hung on to make the Final Four again.
LOS ANGELES — Frank Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers hung on to make the Final Four again.
“Frank the Tank” scored 29 points, Sam Dekker added his second straight career high of 27 and the West Regional’s top seed beat No. 2 Arizona 85-78 on Saturday to reach consecutive Final Fours for the first time in school history.
The Badgers (35-3) denied the Wildcats (34-4) a Final Four berth for the second straight year, having beaten them by one point in overtime in Anaheim a year ago when their seeds were reversed.
Wisconsin and 67-year-old coach Bo Ryan head to Indianapolis next week hoping for another shot at undefeated and top-seeded Kentucky, which beat the Badgers by one point in the national semifinals last year.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Brandon Ashley scored 17 points each for the Wildcats, who once again failed to deliver a first-time Final Four appearance for coach Sean Miller. T.J. McConnell added 14 points in his last college game and Kaleb Tarczewski and Gabe York had 11 each.
Just like a year ago, Kaminsky came up big for the Badgers. He sidestepped and slithered, pivoted and deked in eluding the Wildcats’ lockdown defense. Arizona tossed its biggest bodies on the 7-footer and he still found ways to score inside and out.
The Badgers hit 10 of 12 3-point attempts in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 30-3 from long range.
Arizona pressured full court in the last 4 minutes, making for some perilous possessions by the Badgers as they darted and passed trying to safely get the ball down court. A long inbounds pass by Wisconsin was nearly intercepted before Josh Gasser grabbed it, got fouled and made both free throws to keep the Badgers ahead by 10 points.
The Wildcats twice got within five points in the last two and a half minutes, but both times Dekker dashed their hopes with arcing 3-pointers.