Arizona holds serve, takes care of business … whatever you want to it call it. The Cats beat Louisiana Tech 83-67 to end a three-game losing streak and get back to .500 at 4-4. That last part about getting back to .500 is something I don’t think I have ever had to write about UA basketball.
Nic Wise led Arizona with 24 points, his second 20-point game of the season. (Well, perhaps technically it’s his first since his season high is 30 points.)
For the first time this season, Arizona had five guys score in double figures — Wise, Jamelle Horne (20), Solomon Hill (14), Derrick Williams (11) and Kyle Fogg (11). The only other player to score for Arizona was Kryrl Natyazhko, with three points.
Next up for the Cats is a game at San Diego State on Saturday night. The Aztecs are 7-2 and have beaten San Diego, which beat Oklahoma, which beat Arizona. Based on that math, it won’t be easy.
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Attendance: 13,270. That’s not “Arizona good,” but it wasn’t bad for a 9 p.m. Wednesday night start against a non-sexy nonconference team.
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Make that 16 turnovers now for Arizona. UA’s season high is 17, which has happened twice, including in the debacle at Oklahoma on Sunday.
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Arizona leads 65-50 with 7:31 to go. The Cats have been up by as many as 17, which is fairly impressive. Louisiana Tech did get blown out at New Mexico earlier this season (81-52) but is a solid WAC program with experience, as well as good athletes and size. The Bulldogs figure to be something of a factor in a wide-open WAC, which is deeper and better than it has been in recent seasons.
But, yeah, a Pac-10 team such as Arizona shouldn’t lose to a mid-level WAC team at home, so there’s no need to party too much. Consider: Arizona has 15 turnovers. Coach Sean Miller will find plenty of teaching points from that effort.
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Derrick Williams disappeared in the first half — no point, one rebound, two fouls, seven minutes. The Arizona freshman has asserted himself in the second half, with nine points, including a one-handed jam of a missed shot that bounced high off the rim, and three rebounds in the first seven minutes. Ah, freshmen … you never know what you’re going to get.
He’s out now as UA leads 53-40 with 10:49 to go.
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Louisiana Tech’s shooting woes continue. The Bulldogs have made 13 of 42 shots for the game as Arizona leads 45-33 with 15:30 left. Tech is 1 of 9 this half.
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Arizona leads 35-31 at halftime and if there was a lesson to be learned it’s that Jamelle Horne should never attempt a no-look pass. Call it good defense or bad shooting from Louisiana Tech, but the Bulldogs made just 12 of 33 shots in the first half (36.4 percent).
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Here’s another reason why we have to be patient with this team. It just went a couple of possessions with D.J. Shumpert, Alex Jacobson and two freshmen (MoMo Jones and Solomon Hill) around senior point guard Nic Wise.
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Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, who is one of three finalists for the vacant athletic director’s position at UNLV does not appear to be in attendance at tonight’s game.
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Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyle Fogg brings Arizona into a 23-23 tie with 9:19 to go in the first half. Fogg is 2 of 3 from behind the arc tonight, making him 11 of 19 for the season. Keep on shooting.
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Ex-Rincon High standout David Jackson scores two points in McKale with 12:28 to go in the first half for a 20-13 lead as UA’s Derrick Williams picks up his second foul. Louisiana Tech, which has a nice senior core, is eager to push the pace so far, which doesn’t often happen to Arizona.
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It appears as if Louisiana Tech might be more athletic than Arizona.
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For those of you watching on television, you might notice that first-year analyst Corey Williams is wearing the same cream-colored suit he wore for the home game against UNLV last week. It was at that time that he got off the line of the night, saying he was going to e-mail ex-Wildcat and current San Antonio Spurs announcer Sean Elliott and ask him to send 10 suits he no longer wears.
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Arizona sophomore guard Brendon Lavender, who lost his starting spot to Kyle Fogg for tonight’s game, will not play at all tonight. He has a deep thigh bruise in his right leg.
Coach Sean Miller didn’t mention the injury yesterday when he met with the media, so Lavender might have suffered the injury later in practice. Will know more about Lavender’s status after the game.
The Wildcats (3-4) take on Louisiana Tech (7-1) shortly after 9 p.m.
Check back here during the game for updates and analysis.
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