What we learned in Arizona’s loss to Baylor on Saturday

WACO, TX – The Arizona Basketball team (9-1) is undefeated no more, and after a tough road loss to Baylor (7-1), here is what we learned.

In their first true road test of the 2019-20 Arizona Basketball season, we would finally get a chance to see how our Cats stack up against stiffer competition.

Coming in, things were setting up for a big match for Arizona, as the Wildcats took on the No. 18 Baylor Bears. However, things didn’t quite go the way fans had hoped as the Wildcats ultimately fell 63-58 to Baylor.

Arizona Wildcats

It’s worth noting, that there was a little drama prior to the game as both Nico Mannion’s and Josh Green’s availability were in question, which would make this game even tougher.

In addition to those two, the Wildcats would still be without senior transfer Stone Gettings who is still recovering from a facial fracture.

Luckily both Green and Mannion would play, but it was apparent that both still weren’t quite 100 percent.

Battling injury as well as an early start time, things didn’t start off so hot for the Cats. Despite Arizona jumping out to an 8-7 lead, things began to unravel from there, as Arizona played one of their worst halves of the season.

Poor shooting, rebounding and foul trouble would highlight much of the Cats’ first half, as they would fall behind by as many as 18 at one point, trailing 32-14 with 5:28 to play in the first half.

Luckily Arizona would respond, battling back to cut Baylor’s lead to just 35-24 at halftime, making it much more competitive, but as you can see, there work to potentially battle back in this one.

Arizona would be much more competitive in the second half, but seemingly the Cats struggled to ever cut Baylor’s lead to under six points.

Trailing by as many eight with just over two minutes to go, the Wildcats would go to work, slowly but surely cutting into Baylor’s lead.

Down 57-54 after a made Mannion three-pointer, Arizona would get the ball again, with Zeke Nnaji drawing a foul with 1:50 to go.

After the made free throws, Arizona would trail just 57-56. A huge come back from trailing by 18.

Unfortunately, that’s as close as it would get for the Cats as they would fall with Baylor hitting their free throws to end this one.

Arizona’s Mannion would end the game with 15 points and five assists, meanwhile Nnaji would finish the game with 12 points and six rebounds to go with Chase Jeter’s 11 points and seven rebounds.

With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 9-1 and lose to Baylor for the second-straight year.

Also with the loss, we learned that Arizona will struggle if Green and Mannion are playing at any level less than 100 percent, as the Bears’ veteran guards were a big difference maker in this one.

Additionally, Arizona showed they’re going to need more toughness down low, as Freddie Gillespie was a major difference make in this one finishing the game with 17 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks.

While it’s just one game, and Arizona will surely get better from here, but they’re going to need to play much better moving forward if they’re going to be a serious competitor. Additionally, as we’ve seen, the Wildcats are going to need to depend on their strong shooting abilities to win games.

As Saturday showed, if Arizona has another game where they shoot just under 27 percent from the field (11 percent from three), it’ll be a long day.

Anyways, at Zona Zealots we’re glad the Wildcats didn’t quit on Saturday, and are hoping for stronger play moving forward. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!