TUCSON, AZ – Kicking off the Tommy Lloyd era of Arizona Basketball, the Wildcats dominated Eastern New Mexico 96-50 in their Exhibition opener.
It is officially basketball season in Tucson, as Arizona Basketball kicked off the 2021-22 season on Monday evening with a dominant, 96-50 Exhibition win over Eastern New Mexico.
Head coach Tommy Lloyd hinted that the Wildcats were going to run a more up-tempo style, and despite it being an Exhibition game, the Wildcats delivered, having five different players finish with double-digit scoring figures. Sophomore wing Ben Mathurin led all scorers with 18 points and six rebounds on 5-10 shooting.
Arizona would finish their evening shooting 36-72 (50 percent) from the field including 13-33 from three en route to the 46-point win.
Coming in, there was a lot of intrigue surrounding this team as the Wildcats officially kicked off the Tommy Lloyd era as head coach of Arizona. Beyond that, they also returned a decent contingency of talent from a competitive group from the year before.
And from the tip, this one didn’t disappoint…
Despite a fairly slow start, Arizona Basketball would put together a complete-game effort as they dominated visiting Eastern New Mexico.
Things were a bit slow to start the game as Arizona and ENMU went back and forth with the Wildcats inching out a 6-5 lead after the first three minutes of game time. However, Arizona would ratchet things up from there, going on a 23-9 run over the next seven minutes of game time to really open things up.
Leading 50-31 to begin the second half, Arizona would turn up the defensive intensity from there, even getting more guys involved.
They would begin the half by opening things up with a 21-7 run to make it 71-38 just under eight minutes into the second half, and continued their solid play by spreading the floor, distributing the basketball, and keeping the tempo going as the Wildcats raced to the 96-50 win!
Granted it was an Exhibition game, however, there was plenty to be happy about following Monday night’s win, and if the team that showed up against Eastern New Mexico is the team we get all year, this could be a very surprising group!
Arizona will return to action on November 9 when they open the season against Northern Arizona at home.