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Arizona Wildcats Pounce on the Washington Huskies

By Shereen Rayan

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Tonight it was the cats versus the dogs and the cats came out on top with the Win 86-62.

The Arizona Wildcats had something to prove to themselves and the fans this week, unfortunately they wouldn’t be able to prove it by playing on their home court.  They traveled up to beautiful Seattle to take on the Washington Huskies in Alaska Airlines Arena to play Friday night.

Washington started the season winning 11 straight games, but that was with Robert Upshaw.  Upshaw was dismissed in late January from the team and declared ineligible, since then things have gone downhill for Washington on defense, they remain a high scoring team.

Opponents have been shooting 54% against the Huskies, and this night was no different as the Wildcat shot 52.3%. This was a key to winning this game we as mentioned in the ZonaZealots article Arizona Wildcat Basketball – Fans Need to Chill.” 

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Without Upshaw, No. 7 Arizona were favored by 10 points.  To rub salt in the wound from the horrid loss to Arizona State last weekend, the Utah Utes moved into first place a half game above the Wildcats. Stanley Johnson wore some rockin’ aqua blue shoes while Rondae Hollis-Jefferson sported bright red high tops, not sure which one’s I liked better, but both were effective .

A scary moment with 6 plus minutes left in the first half: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson has a clear dunk and slipped on the floor falling completely on his back and misses the dunk. Hollis-Jefferson recovered quickly, picked himself up and made it back on defense before the shot was attempted.

Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; he was okay but a little gimpy throughout the game.  He scored 17 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two rebounds and a steal.


First half highlight was T.J. McConnell with 8 blocks in 17 minutes, involved in 27 points in the first half.  He had no points or assists in the second half for a while until he got fouled and shot and made two free throws with 7:15 to go in the game.  He ended up with a double double with 10 points and 10 assists, his first playing for Arizona but third in his college career earning the first two at Duquesne.

Matt Korcheck got his chance to play in this game, briefly at the end of the first half, and then with 13 minutes to go in the second half, but was able to be in long enough to commit a foul.  We would really like to see more of him; fans get excited when he plays.

Washington went on a frenzy and cut the score to 11 bring it within 11: 65-54. Arizona seemed to fall asleep, Coach Sean Miller called a time out with 8:16 left in the game.  Thank goodness, McConnell and Hollis-Jefferson along with Stanley Johnson bring the cats back to be ahead by 25 points with 3:48 to go. Johnson scored 20 total points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.

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    • The Wildcats outperformed the Huskies in points, assists, turnovers, and shooting percentages. Kaleb Tarczewski seem to show more confidence with back to back dunks at one point which is something the writers, critics, fans, teammates and coaches were looking for in this game.  He still has room for improvement but it is a step in the right direction.

    The game got a little slow at times, thus predictably the announcing performance of Bill Walton and Dave Pasch went off the rails.  The discussion got so far away from the game and basketball as they covered rowing, spandex, cats, dogs, grapefruits, Chick Hearn, his son Luke Walton, trees vs cactus, and at one point, Pasch had to actually tell Walton to get back to the basketball game.

    Wildcats are 21-3 with a firm second seed projection in the tournament according to ESPN Sports Center.

    Next up: Washington State Cougars (11-13) on Sunday at 3:30pm PST.  To make the game more interesting, the Cougars beat the Sun Devils tonight 74-71.

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