Arizona Basketball: Wildcats grind out a Win over UCLA 81-75

The loss in LA still stings. On Friday night, Arizona basketball looked to even the score. Payback is what the Wildcats wanted, and they were willing to fight.

The Arizona Wildcats were looking for revenge from a heartbreaking loss to UCLA earlier in the season. UCLA came into tonight with a 13-10 record. But if you’ve been following Arizona and UCLA over the years, you know they were going to come in and fight. And that’s exactly what we saw all game.

Arizona walked away with an 81-75 win, but it did not come easy. Allonzo Trier led the way Friday night with 18 points, shooting 9/10 from the free throw line. He didn’t have the greatest night shooting from the field, only going 4/13, but his presence was felt all night. He played a part of the game with his right hand taped, but later took the tape off.

Even with the grind-it-out win, Arizona definitely made it hard for themselves. In what has come to be a typical showing, the Arizona Wildcats played a terrible first half. The team shot a dismal 29% from the field while allowing UCLA to shoot 53%. The Bruins, specifically Isaac Hamilton, were getting wide-open looks and hitting their shots. The Wildcats were not communicating well on defense. The Bruins were executing the pick-and-roll with ease, and getting to the basket uncontested.

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With Kadeem Allen still showing sign of being sick, Parker Jackson-Cartwright got the starting nod for the Wildcats. PJC made his extra minutes count in the first half. He led the team at the halftime break with 11 points, shooting 2/3 from 3. With Allen, Trier, and Ryan Anderson having a poor shooting first half, PJC stepped up to the plate and kept Arizona close.

When you mix a poor defensive showing in with poor offensive shooting, you can’t expect to be winning the game. At the half, UCLA held a 10 point lead, 44-34. The Bruins made Arizona look slow in the first half. And it wasn’t as if Arizona wasn’t running the proper defensive sets against UCLA. The team was doing exactly what Coach Sean Miller asked of them, but with little energy, and little intensity.

The second was a completely different story. Arizona came out and executed the same defensive sets, but was playing with much more intensity. They were guarding the Bruins players tight. The Arizona bigs, Anderson and Kaleb Tarczewski, flexed their muscle for the entire second half. Zeus and Anderson combined for 27 rebounds at the end of the game. They came up big in crunch time with blocks, rebounds, and-one’s, and getting to the free throw line.

Even though the second half was a solid showing for Arizona, UCLA was still able to keep a consistent lead. But Allonzo Trier went on a 9-0 run to put the Wildcats within four points with 13 minutes left. He hit a deep three with the shot clock running out during this run. His right hand wasn’t holding him back anymore, and you could see the confidence beaming off of him.

The game was plagued with fouls, as it is these days in college basketball. Tony Parker and Thomas Welsh both fouled out of the game for UCLA. This was a big hit to the Bruins as they don’t have a lot of depth at the power forward and center positions. The refs seemed to be blowing he whistle at every chance they had. Give it to Sean Miller to realize this was happening, as he continued to feed Dusan Ristic, Anderson, and Zeus down low. Kaleb finished the night with 9 points and 14 rebounds. Anderson got himself ANOTHER double-double as he finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

In the second half, they were too much to handle for Parker and Welsh. With those two fouling out, it was too easy for Arizona down low for the rest of the night. The Bruins couldn’t keep Arizona off the glass. Gabe York and PJC came alive in the second half with deep three’s and got to the basket.

It wasn’t until the last two minutes of the game that Arizona took the lead and didn’t lose it, a couple of Bryce Alford three’s and it could have been a different outcome. Alford missed a key three this time.

In the end, Arizona outscored UCLA 47-31 to hold on for the 81-75 win. This was a big win for the Wildcats, even with UCLA having a losing record in the conference. They took the punches, swallowed the early mistakes, came out and went to work. There is nothing better than getting revenge for a devastating loss. And it only makes it sweeter when it is against UCLA.

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The Wildcats finish out the weekend against USC Sunday night in Tucson. They will look to carry over the momentum from Friday night, and get revenge #2. The Wildcats and Trojans both will look to keep this game from going to 4 OT’s as it did the last time. USC will be coming in after being upset by ASU. Both teams will be hungry. Only the strongest will walk away unscathed. Time to BEAR DOWN FELLAS!