No. 13 Arizona Basketball comes out flat, loses to UCLA at Home

The No. 13 Arizona Basketball teams’ struggles continue, as the Wildcats come out flat at home, get outplayed by the visiting UCLA Bruins in a loss.

It was an ugly game from start to finish. Coming off a tough loss to Washington just days ago, apparently the Arizona Basketball team may still have a bit of a hangover following their loss to the Huskies.

From the tip, things just felt off. UCLA would jump out to an early 8-3 lead, but luckily the Wildcats responded, starting to get things together slowly.

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Seemingly trading buckets for much of the first half, Arizona got up by as many as four points early on. However, that was as good as it was going to get on the night for the Wildcats.

Trailing 35-33 in the waning moments of first half, UCLA’s Jaylen Hands would do his best Sam Dekker impression on Arizona, connecting on three three-pointers in a matter of 56 seconds.

Following the quick scoring surge, the Bruins would cruise to a commanding 10-point lead, heading into halftime.

Allonzo Trier would have just seven points in the first, while Deandre Ayton had just eight points on just 4-12 shooting. The bigger story though, was perhaps Arizona’s defensive struggles in the first, especially in the last minute. To top things off, Arizona was not hitting shots in the first.

In need of some kind of life, the Wildcats would respond early in the second half, going on a 10-4 run, cutting the Bruins’ lead to just four. However, that was as close as it would be for the rest of the game.

After that, the Wildcats played tight, uninspired, and looked seemingly disinterested in the game. Credit to UCLA for making shots, and playing aggressive in this one, but Arizona looked completely over matched in the eight-point loss.

The Wildcats would fall behind by as many as 15 at one point. UNACCEPTABLE!

Tonight, the Bruins were clearly the better team, connecting on 11 of 24 attempts from three, and shooting over 51 percent from the field.

The defensive “effort” by Arizona was so bad, Gyorgy Golomon, scored a career-high of 16 points. Goloman averages just under seven points per game.

Sean Miller surely wasn’t pleased about the performance. This is what he had to say following the loss “We’re a much better offensive team than defensive team, that’s the truth. And the gap has never been bigger.”

Things are not good at Arizona, and they don’t get any easier with USC coming to town. The Trojans look to avoid losing their third-straight game, meanwhile the Wildcats are trying to avoid their second, three-game losing streak this season.

Defensively, there needs to be a breakthrough or something. Otherwise, this is going to be a disappointing season with an extremely talented roster being wasted.

Dusan Ristic said it best, it’s about effort, and right now the Wildcats aren’t giving it.

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At Zona Zealots, we’re hoping for some kind of breakthrough. This roster is too talented to be playing this poorly, especially on the defensive end. Bear Down, Arizona!