No. 4 Arizona steadies the ship with a gritty 73-66 win at No. 2 Houston

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HOUSTON (AP) — Arizona wasn’t feeling great after losing consecutive games following a 23-0 start.

“The two losses just didn’t taste right in the mouth,” Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenko said.

The fourth-ranked Wildcats are feeling a lot better now after winning two straight following that skid, capped by Saturday’s 73-66 victory over No. 2 Houston that gave them sole possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference.

Arizona (25-2, 12-2) lost to then-No. 9 Kansas and then- 16th-ranked Texas Tech to drop out of the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll. They beat No. 23 BYU at home Wednesday before using a stingy defense to down the Cougars in front of a packed house Saturday.

“You lose that tough game at Kansas. You lose a tough game at home against Texas Tech," coach Tommy Lloyd said. "And then your reward is you have BYU and Houston in the next week. It can get out of control really quick in this conference. And so, for us to steady the ship it says a lot about the guys within the program.”

Lloyd is happy to have his team atop the Big 12, but knows there’s a lot more work ahead.

“Obviously we want to win the Big 12,” he said. “But you know what’s really cool about being in the Big 12? You can take second or third in the conference and still win the national championship. The conference is that strong. So, we put ourselves in position to be in position. Now, you got to go take advantage of it.”

While he certainly doesn’t like losing, Lloyd admitted that finding a way to correct problems is one of the best parts of his job.

“You’re actually probably doing OK, because you get to figure things out,” he said. “And there’s nothing cooler than accepting a challenge when things get tough and trying to help your group figure it out. That’s really what is probably the most enjoyable part of coaching, even though it comes with a little bit of pain.”

The victory marks the first time Lloyd has beaten the Cougars after losing his first three matchups against coach Kelvin Sampson.

Before Lloyd took questions after the win on Saturday, he took a moment to express his admiration for Sampson and how he’s transformed Houston’s program in his 12 seasons at the school.

“I don’t know what my coaching career is going to end up at, but I do know one thing, I’m gonna have become a better coach coaching against Kelvin Sampson,” Lloyd said. “You look at coaches that set the benchmark in certain areas and for me he’s one of them. What he’s done with this program down here, it’s been amazing.”

Lloyd, who was an assistant for 20 years at Gonzaga before being hired at Arizona, likened Houston’s success under Sampson to the dominance of the Bulldogs under coach Mark Few.

“(It) reminds me where I came from,” he said. I was at this little old school called Gonzaga, and no one really believed. But they had a hell of a head coach just like you have. And the head coach at Gonzaga and the head coach here at Houston have willed these programs to be elite. And that’s really inspiring for me.”

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