Arizona Basketball extends winning streak against Stanford on the road

The Arizona basketball team battled all the way to the very end and came out on top. Cats win 75-70 on the road against the Stanford Cardinals.

What a crazy game! That would be the best way to sum this one up. Thanks to the referees, this game came down to knocking down your free throws. The Arizona Basketball team did that and won 75-70 over the Stanford Cardinal. They now have won 17 straight against the Cardinal, nine of those at Maples Pavilion. Wildcats improve their record to 12-4 and 3-0 in the Pac-12. Up next, they travel to Berkley to take on the California Bears Saturday night.

The Cats started off on fire, with Brandon Williams knocking down a couple three-pointers and a taking a 10-2 lead. Their opponent came back keeping this one close throughout, thanks to the refs. Let me stop here for a minute and get this off my chest. Of all the years I have watched college basketball, this has to be one of the worst officiated first halves of basketball I have ever seen.

More from Wildcats Basketball

• Arizona Basketball likely to schedule Florida Atlantic for 2023
• Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s FIBA World Cup performance is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant’s
• Rawle Alkins a star in the Drew League this summer
• Arizona Basketball to play in ‘Battle 4 Atlantis’ in 2024
• Reflections on the Pac-12, the Arizona Wildcats, and other memories

Due to the bad officiating, the Wildcats were in foul trouble early. Thirteen total personal fouls were called against the Cats which included two on Chase Jeter, Dylan Smith and three on Ira Lee and Ryan Luther – unbelievable! Thankfully for the Wildcats, the Cardinals were only 11-18 from the free throw line. On the flip side, the Cardinal only committed eight personal fouls with no one really in serious foul trouble.

On the positive side, in the first half, the Wildcats were 6-8 from three and dominated the paint in scoring 15-3. Overall, there was well-balanced scoring in the half, with Lee leading the way with eight points and three rebounds. He would go on to to have a big impact down the stretch. The Wildcats would lead 40-38 after the first 20 minutes of play.

https://twitter.com/AZATHLETICS/status/1083225653648838661

In the second half, the referees called a completely different game. Know how people say the referees can’t really determine the outcome of the game? Well, they did in tonight’s game. How can you go from calling every single time there is contact to not calling any? Sorry, sorry. I promised I wouldn’t keep on ranting. It is just so frustrating when you see such inconsistency. But the Cats were able to keep their cool, fortunately.

Out of the locker room, the Cardinal made some adjustments on both sides of the ball. They were attacking the basket it seems on every single play and they also played more zone, which the Wildcats are known to have issues with. As a result, they took the lead early in the half and led for about the first 10 minutes. sophomore sensation Kezie Okpala helped the Cardinals gain and retain the lead. He led his team in scoring with 29 points, six rebounds, and four assists. The Wildcats couldn’t find a way to stop him, every time he took it to the basket.

They were up by as much as six points with about 12 minutes to play. Behind the experience point guard play of Justin Coleman, the Wildcats didn’t panic and clawed their way back to regain the lead and never looked back. The Cardinal cut the lead to one point several times, but weren’t able to knock down their free throws and get consistent stops and buckets.

For the Wildcats, Brandon Randolph led his team in scoring with 17 points and eight rebounds. He struggled for most of the game, but came on strong towards the end when the Wildcats needed it the most. Both Brandon Williams and Lee had 12 points, Jeter and Luther had 10 points. Bench would end up outscoring the Cardinals 25-7, one of the reasons they would go onto win 75-70.

Free throws. As mentioned before, due to the inconsistency and amount of foul-calling, this game came down to who could make their free throws. The Wildcats would finish the game making 16-18 and the Cardinals were 15-26. Plus, the Cats took good care of the ball for most of the game, only committing 10 turnovers. The one stat though Coach Sean Miller always stresses with his team is rebounding. They were out-rebounded 31-35. This was probably due to the limited play time of the Wildcats big men due to foul trouble.

Before seeming to re-injure his shoulder at the end of the game, Coleman is another reason why the Cats won. He made some crucial assists to keep the momentum on the side of the Wildcats. Say what you want about Coleman, he came up big in this one.

Lastly, I would like to highlight Lee Time. He had his best game of the season so far. With about six minutes to play, he picked up his 4th personal foul, but that didn’t stop him from coming up clutch! He played incredible defense, made a crucial a jumper and knocked down two free throws at the end to seal the victory for the Wildcats (he was chosen to shoot them due to Coleman being injured on the play that caused the foul).

The Wildcats faced adversity in this one, but that didn’t stop them from working as a team to get the victory.  At Zona Zealots, we would like to congratulate the team on earning another Pac-12 win. Undefeated in conference play is no easy task, especially with a horrific referee.performance. Bear Down, Arizona!