The Arizona men's golf team made the turn yesterday at Omni Tucson National Golf Resort in great shape ÷ but that's where the comeback took a quick dive for the gopher hole.

The Wildcats were 4-under-par as a team after the first nine holes, scratching and clawing their way toward leader Arizona State before the wheels started to fall off.

The team combined for eight bogeys and a double on the back nine, coming in second behind the Sun Devils, who showed considerable poise down the stretch to win the National Invitational Tournament by two strokes. ASU came into the day leading Arizona by seven.

The final unraveling for the Wildcats' round came at the par-3 17th and the tough par-4 18th. Arizona played those two holes 4-over-par as the Sun Devils outdid them with a 1-under performance on the same holes.

"I don't know exactly the stories," UA senior Chris Nallen said, "but we just didn't finish well."

Nallen continued his impressive spring campaign, finishing in a tie for fifth place after consistent rounds of 72-69-71.

Even with the top-five finish, Nallen said things just didn't seem to go right for him during the 54-hole even his team hosted.

"It was just a grind all week," Nallen said. "I felt good over the ball and over the putter, but putts weren't falling and irons just weren't getting close."

The senior leader from Hackettstown, N.J., said even though things weren't totally clicking for him, he still pulled some positives from the disappointing week.

"I hit it good and I rolled the ball well," he said. "If I roll the ball well, I'm happy."

Even with Nallen's top-five finish, a freshman was the low finisher for the Wildcats.

Henry Liaw played impressively all week with rounds of 69-71-71 to fall just four shots back of eventual champion Ryan Moore of UNLV.

Liaw carded just five bogeys the entire week, with two coming in the final nine holes of yesterday's round.

The tie for third was Liaw's second top five of the spring semester and third top 10.

The Wildcats have just 10 days before they tee it up again up Interstate 10 for the ASU Thunderbird/Savane Invitational. The tournament is the last test for the Wildcats before the postseason starts, but Nallen said he believes the falter at home won't affect the team down the road.

"We worked to get back to where we wanted to, and we didn't finish as well as we'd like," he said. "We'll learn from it and move on to the next tournament."