Poor defense and fouling doom Arizona Basketball

It was another less-than-stellar evening for Arizona Basketball (9-3, 3-3), as the Wildcats came up short in their 81-76 loss to the UCLA Bruins (9-2, 5-0).

James Akinjo would finish with 25 points and eight assists on 8-16 shooting, and Azoulas Tubelis and Ben Mathurin would provide some electric plays, combining for 23 points and 12 rebounds, but it, unfortunately, wasn’t enough for Arizona Basketball in their 81-76 loss to UCLA.

Despite having a better offensive performance, unfortunately, the Wildcats ran into some of the same problems as before. They fouled too much, and the defense overall was atrocious.

Arizona Wildcats

Unlike any other rivalry game played between Arizona and UCLA, the two teams met on Saturday evening inside an uncharacteristic empty McKale Center, where the Bruins outshot the Wildcats from the free-throw line by a 32-16 margin.

Beyond that, the Bruins’ guards dominated this one. Driving to the bucket at will, they also outshot the Wildcats 24-49 from the field and went a stellar 6-13 from three.

Arizona would come out strong, jumping out to a 24-17 lead with 9:38 to go in the first half, however, UCLA would respond, outscoring Arizona 20-6 over the next 5:38 to lead 37-30.

Luckily, the Wildcats would bounce back, ending the half on an 11-4 run to tie it 41-41 at the half, but as we saw the strong surge by the Bruins in the first half, it essentially set the tone for the rest of the game.

Anytime Arizona got close, much like the USC game on Thursday evening, UCLA had an answer. Pulling ahead 52-51 with 14:42 left after the jumper from Akinjo, unfortunately, that would be the last time the Wildcats would lead in this one.

UCLA’s sharp-shooting and their 32-16 foul-shooting advantage (24-10 in the second half) ultimately proved to be the difference-maker in this one as the Bruins pulled away with the 81-76 win.

Following the loss, the Wildcats drop to 9-3 (3-3) on the year and will have to travel to Oregon with two tough back-to-back challenges against Oregon State and Oregon looming.

With the tough challenge ahead, if the Wildcats are going to bounce back, they are going to have to improve defensively. “We are a horrible defensive team,” head coach Sean Miller said following their loss.

You can listen to the rest of Millers’ press conference here ->

At Zona Zealots, we’re discouraged with the loss and hope Arizona can rebound next week. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!