PHOENIX\u2014Bad shooting nights are going to happen. But if rebounding and defense are still there, it\u2019s manageable.<\/p>\n
Top-ranked Arizona tested that theory on Saturday night, stinking up the joint offensively for most of the evening yet still coming away with another lopsided victory thanks to its defense and work on the glass.<\/p>\n
Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas combined for 28 rebounds, same as San Diego State\u2019s entire team, in a 68-45 win in a Hall of Fame Series game at Mortgage Matchup Center. It was the UA\u2019s sixth consecutive win by at least 20 points, their longest streak since 1942-43.<\/p>\n
Awaka had 15 rebounds, his fourth game with at least 15 this season, along with nine points in 22 minutes off the bench while Krivas had three points and 13 boards. The Wildcats (11-0) outrebounded SDSU 52-28, grabbing 20 offensive boards that resulted in 14 second-chance points.<\/p>\n
Jaden Bradley and Koa Peat each had 11 points, while Brayden Burries, Anthony Dell\u2019Orso and Ivan Kharchenkov had 10 apiece for Arizona, which shot just 37.9 percent and was 6 of 25 from 3. Three of those makes came in 4-minute stretch in the second half when the Wildcats pulled away after trailing by as many as eight in the first half.<\/p>\n
SDSU (6-4) shot 26.3 percent, its worst shooting performance in 11 years, and was 1 of 14 from 3 after coming in shooting 41.3 percent.<\/p>\n
Arizona missed its first nine 3-pointers before Dell\u2019Orso swished one in the final minute of the first half to give his team a 28-27 halftime lead, ending on an 8-0 run. Four of the Wildcats\u2019 first five shots after the break were from deep, all misses, before Peat dunked on a runout.<\/p>\n
A 3 byKharchenkov put the UA up 37-31 with 14:51 left, its first 2-score margin. It led by six with 12:36 to go when an out of bounds call first went Arizona\u2019s way and then was reversed, prompting Tommy Lloyd to challenge the call.<\/p>\n
He won the challenge, improving to 3 for 3 since challenges were implemented this season, andAwaka scored on the other end to give the Wildcats a 41-33 lead with 12:11 remaining.<\/p>\n
After starting 2 of 17 from 3, Arizona hit three straight\u2014two from Dell\u2019Orso and one from Dwayne Aristode\u2014to blow it open. That came during a 12-2 run to build the margin to 53-36 with 8:31 left.<\/p>\n
A putback slam by Awaka put the Wildcats up 20 with 4:49 to go.<\/p>\n
The UA started 4 of 16 from the field, missing six straight shots at one point, and trailed 19-11 with 10:07 left in the first half. It was the largest deficit since being down eight to UCLA in the second half on Nov. 14.<\/p>\n
During that time, Peat picked up his second foul and sat the final 11-plus minutes of the half.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats got within three a few minutes later but then hit a wall offensively, coming up short on seven consecutive possessions when it could have tied it. SDSU was able to stretch the lead out to 27-20 with 2:36 left in the half when the tied turned.<\/p>\n
The UA got five straight points from the line, including three on one possession with 1:18 to go. Bradley was hacked going to the hoop, and after making one foul shot SDSU coach Brian Dutcher was called for a technical foul, withDell\u2019Orso making 1 of 2 technical free throws.<\/p>\n
Bradley made the second, getting Arizona within two, then after a missed 3 on the other end Dell\u2019Orso came off a Krivas screen and drained the Wildcats\u2019 first triple with 30.6 seconds remaining in the half to put the UA up for the first time since 8-7.<\/p>\n
Arizona returns home for its final two nonconference games, hosting Bethune-Cookman on Monday and South Dakota State on Dec. 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u2014Bad shooting nights are going to happen. But if rebounding and defense are still there, it\u2019s manageable. Top-ranked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43772,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-103570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-arizona-basketball","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}