Arizona Basketball: Wildcats make it 20 straight over Stanford

Arizona Basketball found a way to get their 2nd Pac-12 road sweep with a 69-60 win over the Stanford Cardinal. Break out the brooms, it’s sweep time baby!

It wasn’t pretty, but Arizona Basketball found a way to get their 2nd Pac-12 road sweep of the season with a victory over the Standford Cardinal. Poor shooting and foul trouble would the best way to describe this one. Neither team could get going for most of the game, but the Wildcats dug deep in the second half and it paid off.

On a night in which former Wildcat, Aaron Gordon, was absolutely robbed in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the Wildcat basketball team made sure the same wouldn’t happen to them. The Pac-12 refs though tried their best to make sure they wouldn’t win but failed. Note: This is one of the worst Pac-12 reffed games in my opinion.

Against a Stanford team that started 4-0 in Pac-12 (currently 5-6 in the conference), the Wildcats earned this one. They now move to 18-7 overall, 8-4 in conference play and still in the running for the regular-season conference title.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

In the first half, the Wildcats shot 27% from the field and was 1-13 from three (Josh Green made the only three of the half). Luckily though Stanford shot just as poorly. Rebound and free-throw shooting kept the Wildcats in front and with the lead at half, 30-23.

Stanford went on a mini 5-0 run in the beginning of the second half cutting the lead to two, but the Wildcats stayed composed and never lost the lead for the rest of the game. Even though three-point shots weren’t falling, they went to the Zeke Nnaji down low. He finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds…another double-double!

Besides Nnaji, the other key to victory was foul shooting. They were 26-31 from the line. When shots aren’t fouling, making them at the free-throw line is huge in games like this.

Late in the second half, when Mannion had picked up his fourth foul with 12 minutes to go, others stepped up in his place. Dylan Smith had some big buckets, Jemarl Baker made some crucial jumpers and Josh Green came up huge as well.

As a team, they dominated the boards 39-25, which included 13 offensive rebounds. They did turn the ball over 16 times, but solid transition defense limited the Cardinals to generated many points off of those turnovers.

Of course, you can’t forget the bench. They once again delivered. The stats sheets don’t show that, but the minutes they were able to provide with some of the key players in foul trouble, helped tremendously.

20-0. That is the overall record of the last 20 games vs. Stanford…that’s good!

At Zona Zealots, we are impressed on how this team fought all the way till the end to get the W. For their efforts, they earn the second Pac-12 road sweep of the season and in a good position to cut down those nets. Up next, the Oregon schools at home. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!