ANAHEIM, Calif. — Grabbing a commemorative West Regional champions cap within seconds of the final buzzer Saturday, Connecticut junior guard Kemba Walker celebrated the Huskies’ 65-63 victory over Arizona by twirling a towel over his head. A few feet away, it was difficult to tell if head-shaking UConn coach Jim Calhoun was heading to the Final Four or the dentist.
That is, until Calhoun let out that Cheshire-cat grin of his. Got another one.
Can coaches really enjoy a basketball game of this magnitude and importance before it’s over? Not when Calhoun had to hold his breath as Arizona All-American Derrick Williams and teammate Jamelle Horne got open looks for a 3-pointers in the final seven seconds.
And not when it takes winning nine games in a remarkable span of 19 days, in the face of such pressure. After claiming the Big East Conference Tournament title with five victories in five days, the Huskies are off to Houston in search of their third national championship.
Oh, by the way, UConn came out of the West Regional for its 1999 and 2004 titles.
“I’ve been fortunate in 39 years to have teams do some great things,” Calhoun said, “but never in my wildest dreams . . . I’ve never seen a team do what these kids have done.”
And to think UConn completed its regular season with four losses in five games. Connecticut went 9-9 in the Big East and finished ninth in the conference standings.
“Coach told us, ‘I’m not going to let you guys quit,’ ” 6-foot-9 UConn sophomore Alex Oriakhi said. “We bought into that. That turned us around.”
Third-seeded Connecticut (30-9) got 20 points from Walker, the West Regional MVP, and 19 from slick freshman Jeremy Lamb, but the Huskies were in for a battle. In a back-and-forth test, Arizona (30-8), a No. 5 seed, appeared poised to seize control with a 14-2 run that put the Wildcats up 55-52 with 6:36 to go.
But Connecticut regrouped and retaliated with a 10-0 run of its own. The Huskies never trailed again.
“That’s what great teams do,” said Arizona’s Williams, who sat out 13 minutes in the first half with foul trouble but still finished with 20 points. “They set a lot of ball screens. That makes it tough on everybody.”
UConn has been down before. No time to panic.
“That’s the thing about this team,” Oriakhi said. “When teams make a run, we don’t let it get to us. I guess, it’s because with Kemba, we know we’ll make a run back.”
A jumper by Walker just inside the arc from the left side put Connecticut up 65-60 with 1:11 remaining, but Horne, the only senior on a youthful Wildcats roster, answered with a 3-pointer from the right wing.
With 59 seconds showing, there was plenty of time, and a missed trey by UConn’s Shabazz Napier gave Arizona the ball and 18 seconds to do something with it.
“From there, everything seemed in slow motion,” Walker recalled of trying to get a defensive stop.
As time wound down, Williams missed from beyond the top of the key. Arizona got the rebound and passed out to Horne in the right corner, but he couldn’t get a game-winner to go down. The buzzer sounded as the teams scrapped for a rebound.
“You don’t have a feel of their poise and how they control the game unless you’re playing against them,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “If you would have said we’d win the rebounding 42-31 with 17 second-chance points, I’d probably say we’d have won. But you can’t overstate UConn’s poise.”
Neither team shot well, and this became grind-it-out basketball. Connecticut committed just five turnovers — its second-lowest total of the season.
“I have never experienced anything like this,” Calhoun said. “This is our march.”
A march in March. With a wonderful April weekend in sight.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
