Arizona Basketball: Wildcats get the first road sweep in the Pac-12

Arizona Basketball continued their winnings ways with a 66-49 victory over the Washington State Cougars, getting the first road sweep in the Pac-12 conference.

Climbing back up the Pac-12 standings. After getting their first road win in the conference against the Washington Huskies by three points, Arizona Basketball continued their winning ways with a victory over the Washingon State Cougars. The Wildcats have now achieved the first Pac-12 road sweep of the season for the conference. That’s what I’m talking about!

The Wildcats started out slow but went on a 14-0 run in the first half to take full control and never looked back. Dominating the paint and the glass, taking care of the ball, limiting CJ Ellerby to good looks contributed to the Wildcats victory. This team is starting to get their mojo back, just at the right time.

Against the Washington Huskies, it was Jemarl Baker with a season-high 17 points. This time it was Stone Gettings leading the way with 19 points and 12 rebounds – his first double-double of the season (which he had earned just after 20 minutes of play). He showed tonight why he is so crucial to this team’s success.

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In the first half, the Cougars took full advantage of the Wildcats’ inability to knock down shots, taking a seven-point lead eight minutes into the game. That was the largest deficit they would face all game. After the Cougars starting missing their shots and turning the ball over, the Wildcats made them pay.  In a span of seven minutes, they flip the script and took a seven-point lead.

The Wildcats closed out the half strong, leading 32-23. Gettings lead all scorers with 11-10 points. Everyone else except Hazzard had scored. They had a commanding 27-13 edge on the glass, had just five turnovers and had nine fast breakpoints.

Coming out of the locker room, the Wildcats continued to pour it on. The closest the Cougars would get is 12 points. Ellerby finished with just seven points, going 2-12 from the field and 1-4 from three. Josh Green, Dylan Smith, whoever was defending him made it very difficult and forced others to get involved. Miller loves seeing that type of defense.

As a team, the Wildcats shot 37% from the field and16% from three. Those aren’t great numbers, but they won this game because they took a higher number of higher percentage shots and knocked them down. Time after time, they were finding Gettings and Nnaji in the middle of the zone, who were confident in knocking down the mid-range jumper.

This wasn’t the Wildcats’ greatest offensive outing, but at the end of the day, they found a way to get the W. It was a team effort indeed. By the way, Nnaji had what you would call a quiet double-double with 10 and 10. Mannion had 14 points, four rebounds, four assists, and just two turnovers. Green had nine points and two rebounds. Smith had six points and 4 rebounds.

Let’s not forget the play of the bench. Even though they only scored a combined eight points, it was all the other things in the stat sheet that don’t show up, which made a huge impact on tonight’s win.

This pass off the backboard from Smith to Koloko was one of the highlights of the night!

After starting off conference play a little shaky, Arizona Basketball now finds themselves at 5-3 overall and come back home with a chance to take over that No.1 spot in Pac-12. At Zona Zealots, we love how this team has come together and proved all doubters wrong, once again. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!