There was a controversial end to BYU’s road upset of No. 19 Arizona on Saturday and it led to high emotions following the Cougars’ 96-95 win.
In a back-and-forth game, Arizona’s Caleb Love hit a shot and was fouled with the Wildcats down by a point and 12 seconds left in regulation, but officials ruled the foul occurred before Love’s shot attempt.
So instead of trying to complete a 3-point play, Love got two free-throw attempts.
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) February 23, 2025
The 6-foot-4 guard hit both to put Arizona up by a point before Wildcats forward Trey Townsend was called for a foul on BYU’s Richie Saunders with 3.2 seconds left, a call that elicited boos from those in attendance at the McKale Center in Tucson.
Saunders made both free throws to put BYU ahead by one again and they held on to win the game.
During the postgame handshake, players from both sides had to be separated.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said the foul on Townsend shouldn’t have drawn a whistle.
“It’s a bad call,’’ Lloyd said. “I mean like, whatever. What am I going to say? You hate for a game to be decided by that.”
Then, as the BYU players left the court, some Arizona fans chanted an expletive aimed at the Mormon religion.
BYU is the flagship school of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred,” Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois said in a statement.
“On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches and fans. The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened.”
Arizona is currently 18-9 on the season while BYU improved to 19-8 with Saturday’s win.
