Arizona's first possession in last night's game between the Wildcats and the Cardinal ended with Arizona guard Hassan Adams, the Pacific-10 Conference's leading scorer, hanging from the rim without the ball after an errant pass on an attempted alley-oop. That moment typified much of the frenetic 40 minutes that followed.

Both teams played aggressively, diving to the floor for loose balls and crashing the offensive boards in front of 14,611 at the McKale Center in Tucson, but each squad was plagued by missed opportunities and miscues.

Regulation ended in a 73-73 wash, but Adams made sure that he held onto the ball as he skied to the hoop with 21 seconds remaining for a dunk that sealed a 90-81 overtime victory for Arizona (11-6, 4-3 Pac-10).

The overtime period turned on two crucial turnovers by the Cardinal (7-7, 3-3), both on questionable calls by the officials. With the game tied at 77-77 and 2:48 to go in the period, senior center Matt Haryasz lost the ball underneath the Stanford basket. Arizona freshman forward Marcus Williams made a layup on Arizona's next possession and converted the three-point opportunity to give the Wildcats an 80-77 advantage.

Haryasz converted two free throws to bring the Cardinal within one. But on the team's next possession, Arizona center Ivan Radenovic picked up a loose ball and called a timeout a split second before he fell out of bounds. Junior point guard Mustafa Shakur converted a three-point play on Arizona's next possession to put the Wildcats up, 83-79. With 50 seconds left, Stanford was forced to foul the rest of the way, and Arizona made five of its six final shots before Adams iced the game with his emphatic dunk.

"Go down to the official's locker room and ask those guys," Stanford head coach Trent Johnson said when asked for his reaction to the calls.

He was also whistled for a technical foul in the first half, though Johnson maintained that he was only trying to call a timeout.

He later added, "The officiating had nothing to do with [the outcome of the game]. What it boils down to is that they made plays, and we didn't."

Stanford rallied in the second period after falling behind by 11 points in the first. The Cardinal began the second half looking to push the pace, a strategy that seemed to catch a much faster Arizona team by surprise. Haryasz converted two dunks early on for four of his game-high 25 points. Then, with Arizona leading, 56-48, Stanford went on a 15-6 run. The run, keyed by two Mitch Johnson three-pointers and another by senior point guard Chris Hernandez, put the Cardinal up by one with 9:33 remaining in the half.

The game turned into a scramble after that; as each point grew more precious, each team seemed to have trouble making shots and holding onto the ball. Arizona shot only 33 percent from the field in the second half, and the Cardinal committed several of their 22 turnovers down the stretch.

Haryasz had a chance to win the game in the final seconds of regulation, but Arizona players forced a jump ball when he went up for a shot in the paint. Haryasz dropped to his knees as if he had expected a foul, but he refused to comment about the officiating after the game.

"We fought back in the second half," Haryasz said. "We had a chance to win, and I was proud of the way we played. But I want to give credit to their team<\p>--<\p>they played a very good game."

After falling behind, 8-3, to begin the contest, the Wildcats exploded with a 13-0 run early in the first half. In a period of only 2:15, they had run up a 16-8 lead on a series of fast-breaks and three-pointers. Shakur dished out three of his career-high 12 assists during the run, the most by an Arizona player since Luke Walton had 13 against Stanford in 2000.

The Wildcats also shot well from the perimeter in the first half, making seven of 11 three-pointers. They shot 45 percent overall from the field. Williams and forward Ivan Radenovic made all five of their combined three-point attempts in the first half, forcing Stanford's forwards to the perimeter and creating space for Arizona's guards to drive to the basket.

The Cardinal were able to stay close throughout the rest of the half. Williams, who finished with a team-high 22 points, was disappointed that the Wildcats could not put Stanford away in the second.

"We cannot give up a 10-point lead, but we got the win, and that's what's important," Williams said.

The Cardinal, already thin on big men with the absence of injured sophomore center Peter Prowitt, suffered a scare when sophomore forward Taj Finger injured his nose with 11 minutes to play in the first half. Finger returned with a face mask near the end of the first half.

Freshman forward Laurence Hill logged a season-high 32 minutes off the bench and was on the floor for much of the stretch run, along with Johnson. Hill scored 13 points, and Johnson dished out five assists.

Arizona, which had lost three of its last four games heading into the contest, was dealt a blow off the court on Wednesday afternoon, when head coach Lute Olsen announced that Chris Rogers, the team's third-leading scorer with 10.8 points per game, had been dismissed from the team for undisclosed reasons.