Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Cats Out Duel the Rebels 82-70

The Arizona Wildcats Basketball team had a streak on the line, and UNLV could’ve used a win against a ranked opponent.

UNLV came to Tucson with two wins over Top 25 opponents. Arizona held the nation’s longest home winning streak with 45 straight in Tucson. Only one team would continue a trend tonight, and you can bet neither team would go down without a fight.

The starters for tonight’s game were Kadeem Allen, Gabe York, Allonzo Trier, Ryan Anderson, and Dusan Ristic. Elliott Pitts was still out for personal reasons, and Kaleb Tarczewski was still out with his foot injury.

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UNLV came into Tucson already upsetting two Top-25 teams. They boast a lot of athletic youth, with a couple of guys who chose UNLV over Arizona. The Rebels play athletically inside and out; Arizona needed to establish themselves early to show they could match UNLV’s intensity.

The Wildcats established themselves often with the presence of Dusan Ristic, who owned the night with a career-high 20 points. It was a battle of bigs between Dusan and 5-star UNLV big man Stephen Zimmerman early. Neither player wanted to give way to the other. Both traded points, rebounds, and blocked shots.

At one point Dusan had scored nine of Arizona’s 14 points. Dusan was getting work done inside with his low post work, and getting to the free throw line. On the year, he was shooting 45% from the free throw line. But in the first half, you would have thought he was an 85%-90% free throw shooter. Dusan didn’t just get it done down low, though; he hit a big 3-pointer when the team needed it.

For a good amount of the first half, Arizona and UNLV traded shots. But it was UNLV who held a small lead for awhile. Ike Nwamu and Stephen Zimmerman, before being hurt, were leading UNLV. But the Wildcats did an excellent job of keeping UNLV within reach. For the first 17 points, Arizona scored most of them inside the paint. If it wasn’t down low, the points came from the free-throw line.

What Arizona did see, which was much-needed, was an aggressive Kadeem Allen. His role this year has been different from past roles he’s had, he is Arizona’s new floor general. It’s been a Jekyll and Hyde season so far, and today we saw a balance from Allen. He attacked the basket off the dribble and got to the rim for and-one’s.

Ryan Anderson and Allonzo Trier made some big plays down the stretch of the first half. Anderson made a dunk to force a UNLV timeout that put Arizona up 22-21. After UNLV was able to gain the lead back, Anderson provided another boost to tie the game at 26. Allonzo Trier was being a ball hound on both sides of the court, but mainly on the defensive side throughout the game. He got things going with a clutch three to help push the lead for Arizona.

https://twitter.com/Pac12Networks/status/678411741760483328

Arizona closed out the first half strong with Anderson, Trier, Allen, and Ristic all providing quality play. Even with UNLV matching Arizona after the Wildcats would make a shot, Arizona was able to increase the lead to eight to make it 48-40 at the half. At halftime, Dusan led all scorer’s with 16 points, a college career high, but he wasn’t done.

The second half wasn’t as pretty as the first for the Wildcats. Although Arizona shot a solid 52% on the night, they fell into lapses and lazy defense that kept UNLV in the game and kept giving them hope. Arizona’s eight point half lead increased to 10, but after some mistakes, UNLV was able to grind their way back and cut the lead to 54-51 with just under 12:00 remaining.

First our football team and now our basketball team were taking their fans to the brink. Thank goodness they brought us back and earned the win.

Dec 19, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats center Dusan Ristic (14) shoots over UNLV Rebels forward Ben Carter (13) during the second half at McKale Center. Arizona won 82-70. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Typically we don’t see a dip in production in the second half. Arizona’s persona this year has been slow first half play, with a blistering second half close out. But the lapses do happen often. The turnovers crept up, and the mistakes hit several times in the second half. UNLV went on runs of 11-3 and 9-0, after the Wildcats had a 12 point lead, to close the gap 69-65 with 2:30 remaining.

The difference lately, compared to the early games liked against Providence, is the Wildcats have dug deep and found ways to close the win. Ryan Anderson was huge down the stretch, as he has been all year. He finished the night with a double-double: 17 points and 13 rebounds. He did a lot of the dirty work for Arizona with Ristic on the bench due to UNLV going small.

But Anderson was a big part of Arizona having a +13 rebound advantage over UNLV, but he wasn’t alone. The Arizona big’s thoroughly out-performed UNLV, but Trier, Allen, and York all stepped up to help secure the win. Trier and Allen both finished with 15 points each. York, after struggling most of the night with six turnovers, finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks, like the one below:

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All five starters for Arizona finished in double figures tonight as they fought for a tough win with a final score of 82-70. The result was the Wildcats got the W, which is what’s important. Another day in Arizona history where the football team won a bowl game and the basketball team won a tough game.

It might not have been how Miller would have scripted it, but what fans can take away from this game is a sense of how good this team will be. They continue to battle and keep growing as a unit. Another solid win over a tough opponent will only help this team improve as the season goes on.

BEARDOWN ARIZONA!