SAN JOSE, Calif. — Trevon Bluiett and Xavier got the last word.

Bluiett could not miss in the first half against Arizona, then went cold as Allonzo Trier and the Wildcats seemingly took control.

But Bluiett led a comeback from an eight-point hole with less than 4 minutes left and the 11th-seeded visitors from Cincinnati stunned the No. 2 Wildcats 73-71, denying Arizona its first trip to the Final Four since 2001.

Xavier (24-13) and top-seeded Gonzaga (35-1), which beat West Virginia, will meet Saturday at SAP Center for the West Regional title. The winner will become a first-time Final Four team.

Tipoff for the regional final is 6:09 p.m. EDT.

Arizona, the Pac-12 regular-season co-champ and conference tournament winner, led 69-61 when Parker Jackson-Cartwright made two free throws with 3:45 left. Allonzo Trier triggered the Wildcats’ second-half surge, scoring 15 straight points.

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But Bluiett, cold throughout the second half after scoring 18 points in the first 20 minutes, sparked Xavier’s decisive rally.

He hit a 3-pointer with 3:22 left and the Musketeers outscored the Cats (32-5) by a 10-2 margin over 90 seconds. When he made two free throws with 1:54 left the game was even at 71-all.

Bluiett then fed Sean O’Mara for a layup wth 44 seconds left, giving Xavier the lead for good.

Arizona missed its final six shots, four of those by Trier.

Bluiett finished with 25 points, matching his average in the first two NCAA tournament games. Malcolm Bernard added 15 and J.P. Macura scored 14 for Xavier, which has won six of seven games after a six-game losing streak that seemingly doomed their postseason hopes.

Trier, who scored just four first-half points, led the Wildcats with 19. Dusan Ristic added 17 but Finnish freshman Lauri Markannen, pegged as a first-round NBA draft pick, shot 3 for 9 and scored just nine points.

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Arizona generated 13 second-chance points off 11 offensive rebounds to overcome an 18-point performance by Bluiett and take a 37-35 lead into halftime.

After six lead changes, Rawle Alkins gave the Wildcats the two-point margin when he sank a fade-away 18-footer with 1 second left in the opening period.

Arizona led 10-2 out of the gate, but struggled to shoot against Xavier’s zone defense most of the rest of the half. The Wildcats made just 9 of their first 27 shots from the field and were impatient against the zone, converting 3 of 16 from the 3-point arc.

Bluiett, meanwhile, was nearly perfect. The junior guard made his first seven shots, two of them from deep, before missing a 3-pointer with 1:20 left in the half. The Musketeers shot 50 percent in the first half, but Bluiett’s teammates combined to make just 6 of 18.


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