(REUTERS) — Arizona took all the drama out of this one early.
Luke Walton, Jason Gardner and the experienced Wildcats rolled right over Notre Dame 88-71 on Thursday night, advancing them to the West Regional final.
The victory was much easier than Arizona’s second round one-point win over Gonzaga in double overtime, an NCAA tournament classic.
The Wildcats, early-season favorites to go all the way, are just one victory from the Final Four and three short of their second national title.
“I think we’re sitting in a great situation,” said Gardner, who scored 19 points in his school-record 134th career start.
Walton, last seen sprawled on the floor in exhaustion at Salt Lake City after grabbing the second round’s final rebound, had 16 points, seven boards and eight assists for Arizona, winning them the 1997 national title.
Channing Frye had 14 points and 12 rebounds. Hassan Adams added 14 points.
“When we’re playing on top of our game defensively and we’re hitting shots on offense, we are a very hard team to play,” Walton said.
Arizona will play Saturday against either second-seeded Kansas or No. 3 Duke, which played later Thursday. The Wildcats (28-3) are in the round of eight for the first time since 2001, when they lost to Duke in the national championship game.
The fifth-seeded Fighting Irish (24-10) had five victories over top-10 opponents — their most in one season — but their shooting didn’t hold up against the nation’s highest-scoring offense.
“Nobody is crying in that locker room,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “We had a very good year. Kind of new territory for our program, getting to this spot.”
Freshman forward Torin Francis had 25 points on 10-of-11 shooting — more than double his average — and 10 rebounds to lead the Irish. Chris Thomas added 20 points.
The Irish opened on a tear, making their first five shots. Francis hit all eight of his attempts in the first 20 minutes.
“We were going to have to shoot it fearlessly to stay with this team, but some of those quick shots turned into transition baskets, and that hurt us,” Brey said. “We were going to have to score more than 71 points to make it interesting.”
The Wildcats used one of their patented scoring runs in the first half to break open a fast-paced game between two teams that like to run, score and shoot three-pointers. The Irish made 10 three-pointers, and Arizona hit seven.
“The key to our run was just staying on them. They got a little tired, and we kept on,” Walton said.
Neither team led by more than five points before Arizona took command with a 22-3 run that gave the Wildcats a 47-29 lead with 5:56 remaining in the first half. There were eight lead changes and seven ties by halftime, which ended with Arizona up 53-40.
“It was obvious in the early going it was going to be a track meet,” said Arizona coach Lute Olson. “Both teams came out ready to go. We shot the ball well, they shot the ball well, then all of a sudden, theirs weren’t going and we continued to shoot the ball well.”
The Wildcats scored 12 straight in the spurt, including the first baskets of the game by seniors Gardner and Walton, as the Irish finally cooled off. Matt Carroll and Thomas missed three-pointers, and Carroll tossed up consecutive air balls.
“You’ve got to let Carroll and (Dan) Miller crank it up, and a lot of those went in this season,” Brey said.
Thomas hit a three-pointer to open the second half and draw the Irish within 10 points, but they got no closer. Salim Stoudamire and Gardner answered with three-pointers, pushing Arizona’s lead to 61-45.
“It seemed like they shot 85 percent from the floor in that stretch,” said Thomas of Arizona’s first-half run. “We took quick shots, and that just triggered their transition offense. When you give a team like Arizona that much time to run their break, it’s hard to stop.”