The Wildcat men's basketball team narrowly escaped a sweep at the hands of the Washington schools, edging Washington State 61-57 on Saturday.
Junior center Channing Frye broke a 57-57 tie with a layup with just under a minute left to put the Wildcats (14-4, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference) ahead for good. A pair of free throws by junior guard Salim Stoudamire with 14 seconds left iced the game for Arizona.
Washington State (9-10, 3-6) led 29-28 at halftime but was unable to overcome a 45-24 UA rebounding margin, including 15-5 on the offensive glass.
Frye finished with 17 points and seven rebounds for Arizona. Stoudamire and freshman guard Mustafa Shakur added 11 points, while sophomore forward Andre Iguodala notched 10 points and a game-high 15 boards.
The Wildcats were 16 of 19 from the free throw line for the game and limited the Cougars to three attempts from the line. They missed two.
Arizona continues its four-game road trip when it travels to California (9-9, 5-4) Thursday and No. 2 Stanford (18-0, 9-0) Saturday.