SEATTLE (AP) — Caleb Love had 29 points and nine rebounds, and fourth-seeded Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16, surviving a ragged finish to beat former Pac-12 rival Oregon 87-83 on Sunday night in the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats (24-12) will face top-seeded Duke in the East Region semifinals in Newark, New Jersey. Three years ago, Love starred for North Carolina in a Final Four victory over the Blue Devils that sent Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski into retirement.
Tobe Awaka added 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Wildcats, who had never faced the Ducks in the tournament. Arizona also made the Sweet 16 last year, losing to Clemson.
Jackson Shelstad had 25 points for fifth-seeded Oregon (25-10), which led by 15 points just over five minutes into the game. TJ Bamba had 17.
“Us going down early, we never panicked, we never altered anything,” Love said. “I just think we were so poised throughout the whole game. Nobody was worried about anything but finishing up the game and winning the game.”
Love’s emphatic dunk with 2:37 left put Arizona in front 77-70. Oregon narrowed the gap on Keeshawn Barthelemy’s 3-pointer before Nate Bittle’s hook shot got the Ducks within 80-78 with 49.2 seconds left.
Oregon pressured, and Shelstad's driving layup got the Ducks within 81-80 with 10 seconds left. Anthony Dell'Orso and Shelstad traded free throws, keeping the Ducks within a point. Dell'Orso hit another pair, but Shelstad missed one of his in the waning seconds and the Wildcats held on.
Oregon was hurt by making only 12 of its 22 free-throw attempts.
“We put ourselves in a position to maybe make a comeback," Ducks coach Dana Altman said. “I was talking to the guys and we’ve played 30-some games and this is the first one this year that we’ve lost on the line.”
After Oregon took an early 19-4 lead, the Wildcats went on a 13-2 run to close the gap to 26-23 midway through the first half. Arizona went ahead 32-31 on Jaden Bradley's layup with 4:45 left in the half and went into the break up 42-38.
After Dell'Orso hit a 3-pointer that made it 54-43, he turned to the Wildcats' fans and yanked at the “Arizona” on the front of his jersey in celebration.
“We’ve really been talking about this, kind of developing — I don’t want to say unemotional, but a real steady approach. Zero-zero score, so what, now what mentality. These executed it to perfection today,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said.
The Ducks have advanced to the second round in each of their nine March Madness appearances in 15 years under Altman, but they haven't reached the Sweet 16 since 2021.
Just three former Pac-12 teams made this year’s tournament field, and Arizona is the only one left. UCLA lost to Tennessee in the second round.
The Pac-12 collapsed in the summer of 2023, when Oregon and Washington bolted for the Big Ten, joining USC and UCLA, and Arizona went to the Big 12 with Colorado, Arizona State and Utah.
The remaining Pac-12 members, Washington State and Oregon State, are rebuilding the conference, which is set to launch in the 2026-27 season. The retooled Pac-12 will include Gonzaga and Colorado State, which both made the field this year.
Arizona won the national title in 1997 under Lute Olson, defeating defending champion Kentucky with a roster that included Mike Bibby and Jason Terry. The Wildcats were runners-up to Duke in 2001.
Oregon won the championship once, back in 1939. That team was known as the Tall Firs — a nod to the Oregon landscape and the fact that the players loomed taller than most of their opponents.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
Arizona guard Caleb Love reacts after dunking against Oregon during the second half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday found the extreme heat in Texas prisons is “plainly unconstitutional,” but declined to order the state to immediately start installing air conditioning, which could cost billions.
The judge affirmed claims brought by advocates of people incarcerated in the state, where summer heat routinely soars above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). But they will have to continue pressing their lawsuit later in a trial.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, the former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.” Several prisoners’ rights groups then asked to join his legal fight and expand it.
The lawsuit argues the heat in the state facilities amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and seeks to force the state to install air conditioning.
Jeff Edwards, lead attorney for prisoners and advocates, called the judge’s order a victory, even if it didn’t require an immediate fix.
“We proved our case,” Edwards said. “The court made it very clear what the state is doing is unconstitutional and endangering the lives of those they are supposed to be protecting ... This is step one in changing the Texas prison system.”
Edwards said advocates will push for relief for prisoners as quickly as possible. “I’m regretful we can’t protect them with temporary relief this summer, but we will move as fast as we can,” he said.
Texas has more than than 130,000 people serving time in prisons, more than any state in the U.S. Only about a third of roughly 100 prison units are fully air conditioned and the rest have either partial or no electrical cooling.
“This case concerns the plainly unconstitutional treatment of some of the most vulnerable, marginalized members of our society,” U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in his ruling on a a temporary injunction request. “The Court is of the view that excessive heat is likely serving as a form of unconstitutional punishment.”
But the judge said that ordering the state to spend “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to install permanent air conditioning in every (prison),” could not be accomplished before it expired in 90 days.
It would take months to install temporary air conditioning, and could even delay a permanent solution, the judge wrote.
Pitman said he expects the case will proceed to trial, where advocates for prisoners can continue to argue their case.
He also issued a warning to the state that they will likely win at trial, and that the state could face an order to install air conditioning.
The judge also noted that the state Legislature, which is in session through May and writes the two-year state budget, is also considering bills that would require air conditioning to be installed in prisons.
But the Republican-majority Legislature has been hearing complaints about extreme heat in prisons for years and has not addressed the issue. In 2018, the state was ordered to install air conditioning at a unit for older prisoners and those that are medically vulnerable.
Officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Texas is not alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Cases also have been filed in Louisiana and New Mexico. One filed in July in Georgia alleged a man died in July 2023 after he was left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.
A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13% — or 271 — of the deaths in Texas prisons without universal AC between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to extreme heat. Prisoner advocates say those numbers are only likely to increase as the state faces more extreme weather and heat due to climate change.
Last year in a hearing, people who were formerly incarcerated testified about their experiences in hot prison buildings where they said temperatures reach above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius).
They testified some inmates would splash toilet water on themselves to cool off, fake suicide attempts to be moved to cooler medical areas, or even deliberately set fires so that guards would be forced to hose down cells.
“It’s sad it takes a federal court to come in and change things,” Edwards said Wednesday. “This is not a Spanish galley in the 1600s, this is 2025.”
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Director Bryan Collier has acknowledged that heat was a factor in three deaths from multiple causes in 2023, and that prison staff and inmates sometimes fall ill from high temperatures.
But the state disputed the hundreds of deaths in recent years alleged by the prisoner advocates, and argues Texas has implemented effective heat mitigation measures, such as providing fans, towels and access to cooler “respite” areas.
Collier also insisted he would like to have air conditioning installed across the prison system, but that state lawmakers have never agreed to spend enough money to do that.
FILE- Inmate Bernie Tiede smiles after a court hearing granting his release at the Panola County court house, May 6, 2014, in Carthage, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - Advocates for cooling Texas prisons construct a makeshift cell before a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in Austin, Texas. The group is called for an emergency special session to address the deadly heat effecting inmates. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - The perimeter of the Diboll Correctional Facility is seen on July 19, 2014, in Diboll, Texas. (Rhonda Oaks/The Daily News via AP, File)
