SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore forward Dennis Latimore goes up for a rebound during UA's 73-70 win over Texas Sunday, December 15, 2002 at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.

After struggling from the field in the first 38 minutes of Sunday's game, Jason Gardner was brilliant in the last two against Texas.

Gardner, who scored 6 of his 13 points in the final two minutes, including two fade-away jump shots, helped No. 1 Arizona survive No. 8 Texas 73-70 in McKale Center Sunday in front of 14,577.

"Games like that happen, where you just can't make a shot," he said. "But the guys told me to keep shooting the ball and it kept my spirits up."

The Wildcats have now defeated the Longhorns in seven consecutive years.

Junior forward Brian Boddicker's 3-pointer cut the lead to 72-70 with 14 seconds left. Gardner made one of two free throws to give Texas a chance to tie, but sophomore guard T.J. Ford's 3-pointer fell short. The Longhorns got the rebound, but junior Brandon Mouton's arrant 2-point attempt missed as the time expired.

"Right now we should be the No. 1 ranked team in the country," Texas head coach Rick Barnes said. "But we haven't finished two games in the last four minutes. We're disappointed."

Arizona (5-0) played again without senior forward Luke Walton, who is still nursing a sprained ankle, and his lack of offensive production hurt the Wildcats, who struggled to get easy baskets. Walton said his injury is day-to-day and won't play until he is 100 percent.

UA shot a miserable 34 percent from the field in the first half but Texas didn't fare much better connecting on 39.4 percent of its shots as the teams went into the locker room tied 34-34. The game was tied eight times and there were 12 lead changes.

"This was one of the toughest games we are going to play this year," freshman guard Hassan Adams said.

Sophomore guard Salim Stoudamire, who finished with a season high 14 points and made 4 of 8 3-point attempts, led the Wildcats offensively.

But it was the all-around game of Gardner that made the difference for Arizona in the end. Gardner and Ford are considered two of the best point guards in the nation. Gardner finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Ford had 13 points, 9 assists and 4 rebounds. But Ford finished with six turnovers compared to Gardner's one.

"I thought that Jason really took that challenge," head coach Lute Olson said. "Ford is an outstanding player but at times he played out of control and it cost them."

A problem going into the game for the nation's top ranked team was that it struggled on the glass, but UA out-boarded UT 24-17 in the second half and 46-41 overall.

"It was a game for men only," said Olson about the physical play under the basket. "That is as physical a game as you are going to see."

Texas was paced by junior center James Thomas, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds. He tied it for Texas at 65-65 with just over 3 minutes to play.

But two shots and a free throw by Gardner gave UA a 5-0 run and increased the lead to 70-65 with 57 seconds left. Thomas' two free throws cut the lead to 70-67 with 51 seconds to go.

"We got to work on closing games out, but it's a long-season," Ford said. "We put ourselves in a position to win the game, but we couldn't come up with a key play."

Games notes

Arizona only used its full-court press against Texas two times in the game... Stoudamire played a season-high 25 minutes and started the second half... This was the lowest offensive output by UA by 16 points this season... Texas has now lost two consecutive games after reaching the No. 2 spot in the rankings... The Wildcats will not play until Saturday when UA heads to take on Louisiana State. The 7 p.m. CST tip-off will be aired on ESPN2...