Milos Uzan's 25 points leads Houston over Arizona, 72-64, in final of 2025 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship

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POSTED: March 16, 2025 -- 4:30 a.m. CT

KANSAS CITY, MO -- T-Mobile Center

The Houston Cougars defeated the Arizona Wildcats, 72-64, Saturday afternoon to win the 2025 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship. Milos Uzan, Houston's starting point guard, scored 17 of his career-high 25 points in the second half to lead Houston to the win.

"This is why I came to Houston," Uzan told ESPN's Kris Budden after the game. "I came to win championships."

During Houston's postgame press conference, Uzan added, "Houston's culture is so real; the brotherhood here is top tier. I'm just super excited and glad we were able to pull through with this one."

Houston improves to 30-4 overall and swept both the 2024-25 Big 12 regular-season and tournament championships. This year's team is the fifth team in school history to sweep their conference regular-season AND tournament championships. The 2024-25 Cougars joined the 2021-22 (American Athletic), 1991-92 (Southwest), 1983-84 (Southwest) and 1982-83 (Southwest) teams to accomplish that feat.

Emanuel Sharp added 17 points in the victory. Sharp scored 62 points in Houston's 3 games in Kansas City and was voted the Big 12 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Sharp added, "The amount of time we spend with each other every day, in the gym, outside of the gym, you know, it's kinda hard not to be close with them, and that's what makes us such a good team.

"Along with the coaches and the coaching staff and the work that we put in, we bring all that together, you get Houston basketball. It's a great feeling."

Houston trailed Arizona 33-28 at halftime. After making 2 of 13 shots, Arizona made 11 of their final 17 shots in the first half to earn the halftime lead. In addition to hot shooting, the Wildcats played solid defense and limited the Coogs to 7 of 19 shooting the last 11 minutes of the half.

"Arizona did a really good job at the game plan," Kelvin Sampson, Houston Head Coach said after the game. "So, what we did at halftime was we stayed away from any big-on-big -- any pick and roll. What we did was instead of setting the screen we ghosted the screen, and that allowed us to get downhill without anybody in front of us."

Sharp scored a jumper in the paint to begin the second half scoring. Uzan attacked the paint and was fouled and made both free throws before Sharp knocked down another jumper for a 6-0 start to the half and a 34-33 Houston lead two minutes into the half.

The game was tied three times before Houston's LJ Cryer made his first three-pointer of the game (out of 4 attempts) and teammate Mylik Wilson nailed a step back jumper for a 49-44 lead.

Wilson and Uzan combined for Houston's next 7 points as the Coogs stretched its lead to 56-46 with 11:43 on the game clock.

Arizona responded with a 14-5 run the next six minutes to lead 62-61 which led to a Houston timeout.

After the timeout, Uzan sank a go-ahead three-point basket and a left-handed runner off the glass for a 66-62 Houston lead.

Arizona did not make a field goal in the last 5 plus minutes of the game as Houston ended the game with an 11-2 to run to earn the Big 12 Tournament title.

"Yeah, congrats to Houston," Tommy Lloyd, Arizona Head Coach, said after the game. "Obviously, they've had a great season and they've had a couple of great seasons. Coach Sampson deserves a ton of credit. They got us twice this year and they won the Conference by four or five games and they win the Conference tournament, so at this moment they're the King of the Big 12. Nothing but respect for them."

Next: Houston's next game will be in the First Round of the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Opponent, date, time, and network will be announced during the Selection Show which airs at 5 pm CT on CBS.

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