Arizona Basketball rolls behind 31 points from Ben Mathurin

CORVALLIS, OR – Just a few days removed from their sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles schools, Arizona Basketball (10-3, 4-3) responded with a big win over Oregon State (5-5, 1-3).

It was a great evening for the Arizona Basketball team. Just days after being swept by both USC and UCLA at home, Sean Miller decided to changes things up heading into this one against Oregon State.

Playing in their first game since January 4, the Beavers took to the court not having played or practiced much in the past 10 games.

Arizona Wildcats

Looking a bit rusty, Arizona took complete advantage as they came away with the dominant, 98-64 win. Led by Ben Mathurin who led all scorers with 31 points and eight rebounds (his career-high) and Jordan Brown who scored 25 points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench, the Wildcats responded well after their forgettable performance last week.

Arizona set the tone early on, playing stifling defense as they opened the game on a 15-0 run and forced eight Beavers turnovers. The Wildcats would even hold Oregon State to just 35 percent shooting from the field (11 percent from three).

In the second half is where Mathurin showed his value. Making his first start on the season, the freshman who hails from Quebec, Canada, provided a spark that the Wildcats desperately needed.

Doing it on both ends of the floor, Ben would explode in the second half, scoring 22 points on 6-7 shooting (5-6 from three). He provided stellar defense and shooting and is quickly proving to be Arizona’s best freshman this season thus far.

Over the past few weeks, his growth has been amazing to watch too. Against Washington, Ben scored 13, his 24 points against Wazzu were a big reason the Wildcats were able to escape with a Double-Overtime win in Pullman, and now this stellar performance led to a dominant win.

Following the game, Ben had this to say, “I feel like my defense improves every game,” he said. “I been in the gym a lot lately so I’ve been working on my shot, layups and jump shots. I’m going to the gym and getting more confident.”

You can watch the rest of his press conference here…

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 10-3 (4-3) on the season and will await to see if they will play a make-up game this weekend with the Oregon game postponed. At Zona Zealots, we’re happy to see the Cats get back on track and as always, Bear Down, Arizona!