Arizona Basketball starts fast, holds on in 80-67 win over ASU
TUCSON, AZ – The Arizona Basketball team (12-3, 6-3) started fast and weathered ASU’s run at the end to come away with the 80-67 win.
Terrell Brown finished with 18 points, Azoulas Tubelis and James Akinjo each finished with 16 points as the Arizona Basketball came away with the 80-67 win over rival Arizona State and securing the season sweep over the Sun Devils.
Following their buzzer-beater win over the Sun Devils in Tempe just a few days ago, the Wildcats carried that momentum into Monday night with a great chance to pick-up the season series sweep in Tucson.
Arizona Wildcats
Coming out hot, the Wildcats outscored the Sun Devils 40-18 in the first half, as they were sparked by excellent transition offense, a consistent attack in the post, and capitalizing on ASU’s turnovers and poor shooting. Overall, it was looking like a one-sided affair.
However, as we all saw, it was a tale of two halves in this one. Arizona came out strong in the second half, pushing themselves to a 49-23 lead with 17:03 to play, but naturally, ASU started to claw back, finding their shooting touch.
Granted things took a bit of a shift when star freshman Ben Mathurin went down with an ankle sprain. Nonetheless, as more fouls started being called and ASU senior guard Remy Martin started heating up from the floor, the Sun Devils started making this one a little too close for comfort.
Things would look a little concerning with 2:30 left to go in the game when Martin would hit his second of back-to-back three’s to pull Arizona State within nine.
Luckily for us, Arizona had an answer. Relying on sharp free-throw shooting down the stretch, the Wildcats pushed their lead back up to 14 and securing the 80-67 win.
With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 12-3 (6-3) on the year, and will now prepare for their Thursday matchup against Stanford. As for Arizona State, the Sun Devils fall to 4-8 (1-5) and sit in last place in the Conference with their matchup against Cal looming.
Listen to head coach Sean Miller following the teams’ win.
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At Zona Zealots, we are excited for the win and glad to see the Wildcats come away with the season sweep. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!