Radenovic, Shakur power 'Zona past Cardinal

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Even without their leading scorer, the

Arizona Wildcats had enough to get by mistake-prone Stanford.

The Wildcats' defense picked up the slack.

Ivan Radenovic had 21 points and seven rebounds, Mustafa Shakur

added 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and the Wildcats

held off the Cardinal 73-68 Thursday in the quarterfinals of the

Pac-10 tournament.

Arizona, shooting for its 22nd straight NCAA tournament

appearance, moved within one victory of its 19th consecutive 20-win

season. The Wildcats can achieve that milestone Friday night

against No. 13 UCLA, which advanced to the semifinals by beating

Oregon State 79-47.

Meanwhile, Stanford's school-record 11-year streak of NCAA

tournament appearances almost surely will end with a 15-13 record.

Chris Rodgers added 12 points and five steals and Marcus

Williams had 11 points despite a 3-for-16 shooting performance for

the Wildcats, who forced Stanford to commit a season-high 23

turnovers.

"There's no question that the thing that did it for us was our

defense," said Lute Olson, in his 23rd season as coach of the

Wildcats. "That's been our trademark all year long. Our guys

believe that defense is a way to win games.

"It's the best defensive team we've had, and I think that

pressure on the ball forced a lot of those turnovers. We ended up

with 16 more possessions as a result of the turnover margin."

Arizona committed only seven turnovers, and made 24-of-30 free

throws to 10-of-11 for Stanford. The fifth-seeded Cardinal shot 50

percent to the Wildcats' 39 percent, and won the rebounding battle

36-27. But their turnovers did them in.

"You have to look at why those turnovers happened, and I choose

to give credit to our opponent, as opposed to some of our

deficiencies in terms of taking care of the ball," Stanford coach

Trent Johnson said. "For us to have 23 turnovers and 13 assists,

and still be in a situation where we can win that game, we were

doing something good in other facets."

Arizona won without leading-scorer Hassan Adams, suspended for

the Pac-10 tournament by Olson after being arrested on suspicion of

drunken driving last weekend.

"I think it took a lot out of us emotionally, because he's our

emotional leader every day, just with his energy," Shakur said

regarding Adams. "He called everybody constantly throughout the

week, trying to help us out as much as possible. But we really

missed him a lot."

Chris Hernandez scored all but five of his 20 points in the

second half for Stanford. Matt Haryasz added 14 points and Peter

Prowitt had 10 before fouling out with 3:26 remaining.

"It is really disappointing, especially for your senior year,"

Haryasz said concerning the probable end of the Cardina's NCAA

tournament streak. "We didn't win enough games, we didn't get the

job done."

The Wildcats went ahead for good by scoring seven straight

points to snap a 50-50 tie. Stanford battled back, and four

straight points by Hernandez made it 59-58 with 3:57 left.

But that's as close as the Cardinal would get. After a basket by

Rodgers and two free throws by Shakur gave Arizona a 69-63 lead,

Hernandez made a 3-pointer with 49 seconds to play.

Shakur's foul shot made it 70-66, but Tim Morris scored with

31.8 seconds remaining to draw Stanford within two. Two foul shots

by Rodgers and another by Radenovic completed the scoring as the

Cardinal committed two turnovers following Morris' follow dunk.

"We knew that our defensive pressure would force lots of

turnovers, and at the end of the game we put lots of pressure on

them," Radenovic said. "That's how those turnovers came."

Rodgers scored five straight points to cap a 7-0 run that put

Arizona ahead 46-40 before the Cardinal outscored the Wildcats 10-4

to tie the game one final time.

Stanford shot 4-of-5 to start the game for a 9-2 lead, matching

the largest of the game for either team. The Wildcats responded by

going on a 16-2 run, putting them ahead 18-11.

Dan Grunfeld's basket midway through the first half ended a

7½-minute scoring drought, and triggered a 7-0 spurt that tied the

game. Neither team led by more than three points during the

remainder of the half, which ended with the Cardinal leading 32-31.

Both teams got help from seldom-used reserves in the opening 20

minutes -- Prowitt scored eight points and Arizona's Bret Brielmaier

had six for a new career high.