The last road trip out to the California coast did not end well for the Wildcats. Coming off dominating wins over the Washington schools, Arizona was looking to keep the last trip in the past.
Well, at least, we know this California trip won’t be as forgetful as the last one. The Arizona Wildcats, hoping to avoid deja vu, used a second half surge to take game one of their second Cali road trip, winning 71-57 over Stanford.
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Arizona came into this game on an offensive high leading the Pac-12 in average points per game, and early on Thursday night, the offense looked to keep on that track. The Wildcats started out five of seven shooting and jumped out to an early 12-4 lead. The offense had great flow, and the passing was crisp right out of the gate. Stanford is known, according to Sean Miller, for playing one of the toughest zone defenses. So the early success had the night going in the right direction.
And just as quick as the Wildcats started, they quickly came to a halt. The hot shooting, quick passes, and free-flowing motion of the offense hit a drought. We began to see the turnovers creep up. And give credit to Stanford’s zone defense. They picked up the intensity, putting pressure on the guards as soon as they crossed half-court.
With hopes of getting a spark from the bench, as the Wildcats did last week, Miller subbed in the usual second group. But the drought continued, and the turnovers piled up more. After the two best games of his career, Parker Jackson-Cartwright wasn’t the same person last night. He was in foul trouble early and seemed to be a little rattled. Maybe it was because the Cardinal student section kept chanting, ‘short, short, short,’ every time he had the ball?
Stanford was able to keep the first half within reach, closing the gap down to one or two points several times. The first half played out as the more common Sean Miller coached teams, with defense winning for the team. Thanks to Mark Tollefsen and Kaleb Tarczewski, the Wildcats had three blocks early. Justin Simon and Kadeem Allen were able to join in on the fun as the game progressed. The question of the first half was where did the offense go? At halftime, Arizona only had a one point lead, 31-30.
Arizona really put the pressure on in the second half, they floored it and ran past their opponent. For the fist eight minutes of the second half, the Cats weren’t exhibiting an offensive killer instinct. Stanford was even able to take their first lead of the game. But this lead was very short-lived and seemed to awaken the Wildcat beast.
Zeus got a tip-in that began the run for the Wildcats. Ryan Anderson followed up with a tough lay-up, and getting the and-one call. Gabe York, who played a great second half, proceeded to break down the Stanford defense with a lay-up high off the glass, which got Bill Walton pretty excited, saying, “that was the best play of the night by Gabe York.” But he wasn’t done there. The next trip down the floor, York hit a deep three to put Arizona up 51-40.
Gabe York hitting this three from downtown Palo Alto scores @APlayersProgram's #12Best Moment! #Pac12Hoopshttps://t.co/KllilcRnCI
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) January 22, 2016
The second half belonged to Gabe York. With 5:30 left in the game, York hit another deep three to extend the Wildcats lead to 61-47. York finished the night with a game-high 19 points, three rebounds, and two assists. With those 19 points, York was able to hit 4-9 from behind the arc, and at the same time pass Miles Simon (176) for ninth most three’s made in Arizona history with 177.
For the last 10 minutes of the game, we saw how dangerous the Arizona can be on offense. That said, we can’t ignore the defensive effort by the Wildcats. Stanford was held to 31% shooting on the night, only hitting four three’s. Arizona out-rebounded the Cardinal with a massive 41-29 advantage. The Cardinal leading scorer, Rosco Allen, was held to only four points on 1-12 shooting.
It wasn’t the cleanest game Arizona has played, as they had several players in foul trouble late and finished the night with 15 turnovers. The bench, which had been a strong point the last two games, only provided four points. But when Miller needed his leaders to step up and the defense to clamp down, they did just that.
The star of the evening along with York was Ryan Anderson. Ryan was a perfect 7-7 from the field and 4-5 from the charity stripe scoring 18 points and making eight rebounds.
Next up, the Wildcats travel to Berkeley to face the California Golden Bears Saturday night. This will be a tough test for the Wildcats as Cal boasts a strong line-up led by Ivan Rabb. Missing for the Bears will be Tyrone Wallace, who broke his hand a couple of days ago.
The front court for Arizona will get their work in; that’s for sure. But if Arizona plays their game, the Wildcats shouldn’t have a problem walking away from this California trip 2-0.
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The Bay Cats did an excellent job of cheering on their Wildcats as you could hear them on TV.
So, if you’re going to the game, make sure Haas Pavilion hears you and knows who we are!