No. 5 Arizona Wildcats pull away 77-66 to defeat Washington Huskies

For the first time since the 1998 campaign, the Arizona Wildcats are 9-0 in conference play coming off their 14th straight win against the Washington Huskies. 

The Arizona Wildcats were off to a rocky start against the Huskies Sunday afternoon at McKale Center due to turnovers throughout the first half. The lead eventually was in Washington’s favor 26-19 before Arizona stepped it into high gear.

Kadeem Allen’s defensive prowl and orchestrating offensive possessions kept the team in check and the game. Allen for the majority of the afternoon hounded Washington’s freshmen phenom G, Markelle Fultz, on defense to only 16 points and forcing three turnovers along the way. He offensively, consistently tested the Huskies interior presence forcing his way down the line for layups and drawing fouls.

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Allen hit three for seven from the floor, seven for eleven from the free throw line and ended up leading the team with 14 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Defensive rebounding and getting to the free throw line helped the Cats get back and eventually take control of the game. Even though Arizona became very sloppy handling the ball, turning the rock over thirteen times.

Arizona’s freshmen phenom F, Lauri Markkanen came out of the gates a tad off missing his first two three-pointers. But he was able to recover in the second half hitting two for four from beyond the arc. Markkanen had to work to earn his points especially down in the paint. He ended up with 12 points, six rebounds, and zero assists.

The other two freshmen Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons brought an all around game effort with their defensive and offensive scoring abilities. Alkins did not have any assists this afternoon but came up with eight rebounds and eight points hitting two key three-pointers that kept the lead in the Wildcats favor. Kobi Simmons was exceptional ending up with 13 points, three rebounds, and four assists. Simmons also drove the ball for a double pumped slam dunk to push the lead to 10 in the second half.

https://twitter.com/AZATHLETICS/status/825834125852499969

Vote for this dunk to be the play of the week here (need to double-click on the tweet then on the button to tweet vote):

Allonzo Trier‘s presence was felt tremendously as Trier again came off the bench for the third straight game since his return against UCLA. Trier played a total of 33 minutes the most on the Arizona squad and came up big in the rebounding department with 8 to tie Arizona’s game high. He was only one for four from three-point range but made up for those misses by getting to the free throw line hitting five of nine ending with 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and zero turnovers.

Along with going it the taking it to the rack drawing an and-one, this assist by Trier to Chance Comanche for a spectacular dunk is also to be commended.

These past couple games Arizona has not played their best basketball but were able to pull away in the second half of both games. This next road is going to be crucial, and it will determine who will be on top of the conference of champions.

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Heading up to Oregon to face the Oregon State Beavers on Thursday night before their only conference meeting of the season against the No. 13 Oregon Ducks who fell to Colorado last night in a stunning defeat and also fell in the AP rankings.

Deep in PAC-12 conference play, It is going to be tough, but I believe with the team that Arizona has assembled, the Wildcats will have a better chance of defeating the Ducks especially with Allonzo Trier back. Arizona has to stick to their winning formula as they head out to Corvallis against Oregon State Beavers Thursday night. BEARDOWN!!!