Despite first game jitters, Arizona Basketball prevails in their win

TUCSON, AZ – In their first game of the Pandemic-plagued 2020-21 season, the Arizona Basketball team came away with the 74-55 win against Grambling State.

After much ado heading into their first game of the season, the Arizona Basketball team finally took to a bizarrely empty McKale Center, coming away with the 74-55 win.

Transfers Jordan Brown and James Akinjo were certainly the real deal in the 19-point win, finishing the game with 19 points and 15 rebounds, and 19 points and three assists respectively.

Arizona Wildcats

The game started off with a moment of silence for the passing of the late, Lute Olson, and in rare fashion, it stayed quiet throughout the game. In a game that is typically led by a rowdy and raucous McKale Center crowd, the Wildcats kicked off their 2020-21 season, with no fans in the Covid-era of College Athletics.

Very curious to see how this team looks, Arizona was competitive early on, especially as they got off to a quick start with a 15-4 lead. However, they did run into some of their inexperience, as Grambling State started to rally back in the first half, cutting Arizona’s lead to five with 9:54 to play.

Luckily, Arizona was able to rely on the experience and play of Akinjo and Brown, taking a convincing, 39-23 lead at the break.

Coming into the second half, Arizona extended their lead to 20 at 47-27, however, the Tigers would not go away. Finally finding their rhythm, Grambling State started to rally and began challenging the Wildcats, cutting the lead to just 10 at 57-47 with 7:03 to play.

With the limited preparation and the fact that this was Arizona’s first game of the season, you have to think those were major factors here.

Fortunately for us, Arizona was able to maintain the lead, and even extend their control over the last four minutes of the game, closing out the game on a 17-8 run! Arizona’s size, talent, and athleticism ultimately just too much for Grambling State as they came away with the 74-55 win!

Jordan and James certainly led the way, but it was Arizona’s poor shooting from Jemarl Baker (1-8), Dalen Terry (1-5), and Ben Mathurin (2-7) that also played a factor here.

Christian Koloko did look pretty good, finishing the day with seven points and nine rebounds, however, he does need to be more aggressive on the offensive side of the ball.

Overall, not the prettiest of performances, however, it was indeed a win in which the Wildcats looked pretty good defensively.

Arizona does have a long way to go, but this is a good starting point for the Wildcats, and it’ll be interesting to see how this team progresses over the next few weeks/months.

At Zona Zealots, we’re happy for the win and will be curious to see how this team comes along. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!