In his final Harvard game, co-captain Christian Webster tallied eight points in a loss to Arizona in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

UPDATED: March 23, 2013, at 11:00 p.m.

SALT LAKE CITY—Since the start of the 2012-13 season, the motto of the Harvard men’s basketball team has been, “We may not have what we had, but we have enough.”

But when the Crimson met the University of Arizona on Saturday in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, that wasn’t the case.

The Wildcats (27-7) dominated Harvard (20-10) from start to finish, never trailing en route to a 74-51 victory in front of 16,060 fans at EnergySolutions Arena.

“They deserved to win,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said of Arizona, which will take on No. 2 Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen. “Arizona played an outstanding ballgame.”

After shooting a blistering 52.4 percent from the field in an upset victory over New Mexico Thursday, the Crimson struggled to find the bottom of the net against the Wildcats’ pressuring defense.

The Crimson shot just 27.6 percent from the floor—a season low—and connected on just five of 18 attempts from deep.

“Disappointing for us that we didn’t play better,” Amaker said. “I think we’ve shown that we’ve been a better team than we displayed this afternoon.”

Sophomore Wesley Saunders, who led the Ivy League in scoring, was held to single-digit scoring for the first time this season. The wing finished with eight points after missing 10 of 11 shots from the field.

“We tried to drive and kick and penetrate and we needed open shots from the perimeter,” Amaker said. “We didn’t have either of those helping us. One usually helps the other, and neither were working for us.”

On the other end, Harvard struggled to contain Wildcat point guard Mark Lyons and the rest of the Arizona offense. Lyons finished with a season-high 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting.

As a team, the Wildcats shot 55.1 percent from the field and connected on nine of 15 three-pointers. The latter mark ties a record for best three-point shooting in an NCAA Tournament game with a minimum of 10 attempts.

Arizona opened the game on a 17-2 run as the Crimson missed its first 12 shots from the field. The Wildcats went into the break up 18, and extended their lead to as many as 25 in the second half.

“They pounced right on us from the beginning,” said co-captain Christian Webster, who combined with junior Laurent Rivard to shoot three of 13 from deep. “I think it took us by surprise how hard they played, how physical they were, and like Siyani [Chambers] said, their length and size and speed. From there it was just an uphill battle.”

Sophomore center Kenyatta Smith led the Crimson with 10 points, five rebounds, three steals, and one block.