Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Wildcats Steamroll over the Lumberjacks

The Arizona Wildcats basketball team beat the Lumberjacks, to no one’s surprise.

The streak continues: Arizona has won forty-five straight home-court victories for the Cats.

The Lumberjacks came into tonight with a record of 2-6 losing more than winning. The team includes ten true freshmen. Arizona came in winning nine games and losing only one game thus far. A loss to Providence they will not forget.

Elliott Pitts remained in street clothes on the bench with Kaleb Tarczewski and Ray Smith.

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The first half of the game was mostly uneventful, and the Wildcats were not playing with urgency or energy. What was painfully obvious was that Gabe York had a very rough half, missing five field goals and three 3-pointers in 17 minutes. Still the score at half time was still formidable, Arizona scored 40 points, and Northern Arizona scored 24. The Cats started to pull away late in the first half; it was relatively close for far too long.

Coach Sean Miller commented after the half, “This is more like a ‘me‘ game instead of a ‘we‘ game,” and we were all nodding our heads. Another takeaway was the lack of strength at the basket, shots were missed that should have gone in but were put up as floaters. Thank goodness Mark Tollefsen was there to give the team some second chance points.

Dec 16, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Justin Simon (3) and guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (0) celebrate during the second half against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at McKale Center. Arizona won 92-37. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Highlights included Ryan Anderson, who went 4-6 shooting from the field, 4-4 shooting his free-throws and scored 12 points. Tollefsen went 4-7 shooting from the field, 4-4 shooting free-throws and scored 13 points. Anderson made seven rebounds, and Tollefsen made four rebounds. When these two were playing the Cats were +16.

Ever since the Thanksgiving tournament, Miller has chosen a ‘don’t foul too much in the first half’ mantra. It’s working because it leaves room for more aggressive play in the second half and lulls the opponents into thinking, ‘is this all they’ve got?.’

The Lumberjacks, however, did end the half with two players committing three fouls each: Corey Brown and Isaiah Thomas. Brown would eventually foul out. What contributed to NAU’s demise was their shot percentage that was a measly 25%.

Halftime Score: Arizona 40 NAU 24

On to the next half.

Things got off to a better start in the second half. Kadeem Allen accrued assists throughout the half, and when he was in the game, the Wildcats were +40.  Allen also stole the ball and passed it back to Allonzo Trier for a classic dunk from the front of the rim.

York hit two three’s in a row, and Chance Comanche put in two slam dunks. The cats were up by 27 points with about 11 or so minutes left in the game (65-38), and NAU head coach Jack Murphy came onto the court and stomped his feet. He then promptly received a technical foul.

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Kadeem Allen knocked out Torry Johnson‘s tooth as they both went for the ball, it was clearly not intentional, but it got reviewed.

Trying hard to play ‘team ball’, Dusan Ristic had gone down after struggling for the ball and his entire team went to help him up all four players. NAU’s Corey Brown fouled out, and it didn’t matter much because the Cats were up by 44 points with eight minutes left, 74-30.

The Wildcats had gotten the message in the locker room not to let up and to give more energy no matter what the score. It worked! And if nothing else, it was an excellent chance to add to their season stats. Playing UNLV next on Saturday will be a much different ball game.

Justin Simon came into the game and made back to back baskets. He has a nice finger roll floater he shoots in front of the basket. What was fun was when Simon threw a no-look pass to Comanche for a dunk. That play left the Pac-12 announcers glowing about Miller and his freshman.

The bench greeted them with smiles and hugs; they were having a great time. With 2:30 minutes to go, the Cats were up by 55 points, 88-33.

https://twitter.com/Pac12Networks/status/677352385648402432

Ahead by a games-worth of points, Miller decided to give walk-on Jacob Hazzard a few minutes at point guard. Hazzard wasted not time and as soon as he got in the game, he made his first basket of the season. Queue an exuberant Wildcats bench which erupted once more.

The game was so one-sided, the three announcers pulled a ‘Walton’ and went on a tangent discussing Monmouth’s’ bench antics. It was unanimous, as it should be that the NCAA should allow the extremely entertaining celebrations to continue as the entertainment value is priceless.

Ryan Anderson was named the player of the game for his double-double from the Pac-12 Network, and Mark Tollefsen was named the player of the game by the IMG Sports Network for scoring a team-high 19 points. Both players made 100% of their free-throw shots and together scored 40 of the 92 total points. Anderson made 12 rebounds as well.

The stats speak for themselves:

http://www.arizonawildcats.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30700&ATCLID=210276803

Post-game, Sean Miller, had a lot of nice things to say about Tollefsen. He explained that finals were looming over the players heads and now that finals are over Tollefsen, and the rest of the team can now concentrate on basketball. Miller said that since he is new, Mark is learning the Arizona defense along with his fellow freshmen teammates. The more he learns the better he gets. Just in time for UNLV!

Brian Jeffries asked Miller about Allen, “We were much better in the second half..Kadeem Allen came out after half time..and he stepped up,” said Miller, “Our guys didn’t follow any of the rules that we have in the defense [in the first half]..and that’s what we talked about [at halftime].”

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Miller was also questioned about Ristic and how he was doing thus far in the season, “I have the bar set very high for him, especially on defense..he’s one of our teams most improved players from a year ago.”

The Cats only shot 4-14 3-pointers in the first half, but then made 3-5 in the second half. Turnovers have come down, only ten tonight. Also, the Cats were rebounding machines tonight out rebounding NAU, 49-25

Next up is UNLV on Saturday at McKale at 7:30 MST/6:30 PST, after the Arizona football teams bowl game. UNLV is 1-2 against Pac-12 teams: they beat Oregon, but they lost by two to UCLA and by 10 to ASU.

Beardown Arizona! Having a record of 10-1 and winning your 45th straight home game at McKale ain’t to shabby!