Arizona Basketball: Wildcats advance to Wooden Legacy final

Arizona Basketball won two hard-fought games and now face Wake Forest in the Wooden Legacy final on Sunday.

It hasn’t been easy. These last two games for Arizona Basketball they have had to earn their wins the hard way. After winning by a margin of almost 30+ points per game in their first six games at home, they won their last two by a total of 14 points. Up next for the Wildcats is Wake Forest from the ACC on Sunday evening (at a normal time of 7pm MST) in the Wooden Legacy final.

Being away from McKale Center for the first time this season, the Wildcats have handled the different environment good so far. It has helped that the fans have turned the venue into McKale Center of the North. That fan energy always helps give the players that extra boost.

Game One – Arizona vs Pepperdine

In the first game, the Wildcats faced off against Lorenzo Romar and Pepperdine Waves. Prior to the game and after, Miller mentioned how it was hard for him to play against such a really good friend and a really good team. And it showed. There were a total of 31 lead changes and the game was tied 14 times.

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Back and forth this game went with each time trying to connect with the knock out punch. Every time the Wildcats thought they had the momentum, the Waves came right back down the court and hit a three. They made 13 of them. Wasn’t like the Wildcats defense was that terrible, it was just the Waves couldn’t miss.

Wildcats were hitting their long-range shots as well, going 11-20. Dylan Smith and Josh Green both came up clutch with some huge long-distance shots to keep them in it. Not connecting on their FTs, going 14-24, kept the Waves in this one.

In the end, though, it was freshman sensation Nico Mannion with the coast to coach Kadeem Allen like off the class running layup to win the game 93-91!!

Game Two – Arizona vs Penn

In the second game, the Wildcats took on a Penn team that like Pepperdine, was not afraid to take the three-point shot. Early on though they had a hard time making them, which led to the Wildcats building a 10 point lead in the first half.

The Quakers wouldn’t go away. They started to connect from three and ended up tieing it up late in the first half, but then the Wildcats had different plans and re-built their lead back up to eight points heading into the locker room. They shot the ball well from the field at 55% and from three they were shooting 50%.

Mannion led the team in scoring during the first 20 minutes of play with 9 and points and would go onto being the leading scorer, finishing with 24 points. He also had four rebounds, two assists, and no turnovers. It was the Mannion show!

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In the second half, like the first, the Wildcats went on one of their runs to open up the lead to 16 points. But then came back the Quakers. They got as close as 4 points, but the Wildcats were too much for them to handle. Wildcats win 92-82.

Three-point defense and overall poor communication on the defensive end lead to some easy shots for their opponents. Something they will need to clean up if they are too compete for the Pac-12 title and against the likes of Baylor and Gonzaga.

Some things that stood out well against the Quakers though was Zeke Nnaji’s ability to pass out of the double team, Chase Jeter getting more involved on offense, Jemarl Baker seeming to gain more confidence as the season goes on and they made their free throws.

Overall, these last two games the Wildcats fought hard, improved their record to 9-0 and a chance to win the Wooden Legacy. They face an experienced and confident Demon Deacons team that the Wildcats will need to be ready right from the beginning.

They beat Long Beach State 88-75, an opponent the Wildcats had some difficulty in handling early on. The Demon Deacons will certainly be feeling confident they can pull off the upset. Brandon Childress is their senior guard who leads the lead team scoring with 16.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game.

At Zona Zealots, we are proud of what Arizona Basketball has accomplished so far in their 8 game winning streak. Let’s hope they can keep it going against Wake Forest! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!