The Arizona Wildcats topped the Utah Utes in a Pac 12 basketball match-up in Tucson.
The Arizona Wildcats may not have the services of Allonzo Trier and Ray Smith. However, they still have Sean Miller, a dominant defense, the emerging freshman trio of Lauri Markkanen, Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins, and an impressive big man in Dusan Ristic.
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Arizona used those strengths to control the Utah Utes from start to finish on Thursday evening, winning 66-56 to improve to 3-0 in Pac 12 play.
Ristic scored a game high 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while also grabbing eight rebounds and only turning the ball over one time. Two other Wildcats scored in double figures, as Markkanen dropped 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Kadeem Allen put up 11 points.
Simmons and Alkins only combined to score 16 points and struggled shooting the ball, but Alkins was able to impact the game with his eight rebounds, and both players competed on the defensive end.
Arizona shot 46 percent from the field and missed only three free throws, but the game was won on the defensive side of the ball.
The Wildcats limited the Utes to 43 percent shooting overall and 19 percent from beyond the arc. The only two double figure scorers for Utah were David Collette and Devon Daniels, as Arizona was able to hold Lorenzo Bonam and Kyle Kuzma to a combined 10 points.
This isn’t a new feat for the Wildcats by any stretch of the imagination. Arizona has not given up 70 or more points in a single game this season. The most they’ve given up is 69 points twice, against the now 18th ranked Butler Bulldogs and the now 5th ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Even more impressive is the fact that the Wildcats did most of their damage on the defensive side of the ball with just seven scholarship players earlier this season. Parker Jackson-Cartwright missed a significant amount of time with an ankle injury (he did play last night), but the Wildcats were still able to flex their muscles because of Miller’s scheme.
Also, it’s not like the Wildcats have excellent rim protection. As a matter of fact, Arizona has only one player averaging more than 0.7 blocks per game and that’s Keanu Pinder, who only plays 16 minutes per night. Allen, who is a guard, is the next best shot blocker on the team with 0.7 per game.
That just shows how fundamentally sound they are on that end of the floor. And it was evident on Thursday night.
Allen sticks to his man like glue. Alkins is physical and tough. Simmons continues to develop. Jackson-Cartwright is stingy. And Ristic and Markkanen defend the paint well.
They don’t play individual defense, they play team defense. They help off the ball without leaving a gap in their coverage, and they challenge every shot.
Arizona is not in the class of UCLA and Oregon, and they likely won’t be for the remainder of the season unless Trier returns. But they are no easy out and they won’t be fun to play when March rolls around.
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Meanwhile, this is a tough loss for Utah. They don’t have any real quality wins and this was a perfect opportunity for the Utes to place themselves firmly on the bubble. Utah has lost four games this year (Butler, Xavier, San Francisco and Arizona) and have beaten Colorado, but if the Utes are going to have a chance to make the Field of 68, they must snag some wins against the likes of Oregon, USC and UCLA before March.