LAS VEGAS—Welcome to college basketball, Koa Peat. It sure doesn’t look like you’ll be here for long. And thanks for sticking around, Jaden Bradley.
Peat, the highly touted freshman who played for Tommy Lloyd over the summer with Team USA, had arguably the best debut in school history while Bradley looked every bit the senior leader he’s expected to be down the stretch. Together they led No. 13 Arizona to a 93-87 win over defending NCAA champion Florida on Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Peat scored 30 points, second-most by a UA freshman in their first college game, on 11 of 18 shooting, adding seven rebounds, five assists three steals and a block. He also made 8 of 12 free throws including three in the final minute.
Bradley, who tested the NBA Draft waters after the last two seasons, had a career-high 27 on 9-of-14 shooting and scored 11 in a row for the Wildcats at one point in the second half.
And Ivan Kharchenkov, who was the third freshman to start along with Peat and Brayden Burries, went for 12 points and 10 rebounds. Burries, on the other hand, finished with only three points and two assists in 17 minutes, going 1 for 6 and fouling out.
No. 3 Florida, the first defending champ to lose its opener since Syracuse in 2003, was led by Thomas Haugh, who had 27.
Arizona, which trailed by as many as 12 in the first half, led 50-46 at halftime and extended the margin to 59-50 with 16:02 left. Florida’s Ruben Chinyelu was called for a flagrant foul on Kharchenkov, who made both foul shots, and two possessions later Kharchenkov was goaltended on a layup behind the defense.
But then Tobe Awaka was called for a flagrant, after officials originally called a jump ball with Arizona retaining possession, and Awaka picked up his fourth foul 16 seconds later. Florida only made two of four free throws, though, and that set the stage for a mammoth stretch by Peat.
He intercepted an inbounds pass and went in for a layup, then had a block that led to him scoring inside over Florida All-American Alex Condon for a 63-54 lead with 13:18 to go. Condon had 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
The Gators chipped away at Arizona’s lead and enhanced the Wildcats’ foul trouble at the same time. A Boogie Fland layup cut it to two, thenHaugh capped a 7-0 run to tie it at 67 with 7:49 remaining.
Tied at 70, Peat threw down consecutive monster jams—the first on a lob from Anthony Dell’Orso—to put Arizona back up two scores. Peat then fouled out Chinyelu with 5:30 left and made 1 of 2 foul shots for a 75-72 lead.
Back-to-back baskets by Bradley upped the margin to seven, then after Florida got within three with 3:33 left Bradley scored six straight—fouling out Condon in the process—to put the UA up 85-76 with 2:20 to go.
Florida wouldn’t quit, though. Down eight with under a minute left, Micah Handlogten had a 3-point play and thenHaugh scored after stealing the inbound. Arizona called timeout and then threw it away again, but Fland was short on a potential tying 3 and Dell’Orso made two free throws on the other end to get back up 90-85 with 36.9 seconds left.
Haugh dunked on the other end with 27.4 seconds remaining and Arizona nearly gave it away again before Peat made 3 of 4 free throws in the final moments to ice it.
Arizona’s defensive rotations and sloppiness with the ball led to a big early hole. Florida was able to score inside without much resistance, and the Wildcats turned it over five times in first 7-plus minutes, the last leading to a corner 3 by Florida’s Urban Klavzar made it 24-12 with 12:41 left in the first half.
Lloyd called timeout, and whatever he said during that break should be mined and turned into crypto.
Arizona outscored the Gators 36-18 over the next 12-plus minutes, using an 8-0 run to get within four and 9-1 run to take the lead.
The Wildcats’ first 18 shots of the game were from 2-point range before Kharchenkov drained a 3 with 7:52 left in the first half. His second triple put the UA up 42-41 with 3:53 left before halftime.
The UA returns to Tucson for its home opener Friday against Utah Tech, the first of two games at McKale Center before going back on the road to face No. 12 UCLA and No. 4 UConn.