Big second half propels Arizona Basketball in win over Wazzu

TUCSON, AZ – Using a big second half, the Arizona Basketball team (16-8, 10-8) propelled themselves to the 69-53 win over Washington State (14-11, 7-11).

James Akinjo had a big evening, scoring 19 points, grabbing six rebounds, and dishing four assists, meanwhile, Ben Mathurin finished his evening with 14 points and four rebounds. Even Terrell Brown, Jr. had a big day in place of the injured Kerr Kriisa as he scored seven points, eight assists, and four blocks in the Arizona Basketball 69-53 win.

However, this game wasn’t pretty from the start.

Arizona Wildcats

In a first half that was mostly plagued by poor shooting, ball handling, and rebounding, the Wildcats were at least able to find a bit of a rhythm to end the half, holding the Cougars to just a 29.4 shooting percentage.

Trailing 22-18 with just 4:12 to play, Arizona would end the half on a 10-2 run, securing a 28-24 lead that the Wildcats would not relinquish in this one.

Opening the second half, Washington State would pull within one after Dishon Jackson had a put-back lay-in to make it 31-30 with 16:57 to play, but luckily for us, that was as close as the Cougars would get it in this one.

Mostly having a pedestrian first half, Akinjo would finally come alive in the second half, propelling the Wildcats’ offense, as they slowly started to pull away around the 12-minute mark.

Doing it on both ends of the floor, Arizona Basketball would outpace the Cougars 41-29 in the second half en route to their win.

After leading by double-digits for most of the second half, Washington State would cut it down to nine after a pair of TJ Bamba free throws at the 7:38 mark. But luckily, the Wildcats responded by going on a 14-5 run, to put them up by as many as 18, before coming away with the 16-point win.

Key Takeaways:

• After averaging 28.0 points per game over his last three games, Arizona would hold Noah Williams to 8 points on 2-15 shooting.
• Wildcats held the Cougars to just 31.7 shooting percentage.
• Terrell Brown. Jr. led the Wildcats in blocks with four.

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 16-8 (10-8) and will return to action on Saturday against Washington. Listen to head coach Sean Miller following the teams’ win.