No. 17 Arizona Basketball beats Southern behind Kriisa’s Triple-Double

TUCSON, AZ – Fueled behind Kerr Kriisa’s triple-double, No. 17 Arizona Basketball (2-0) cruised to the 95-78 win over Southern (0-2).  

Fresh off of a dominant win over Nicholls, No. 17 Arizona Basketball returned to action inside McKale Center to take on Southern.

Fueled by a collective team effort in this one, four different Wildcats finished in double-figures as Pelle Larsson, Azuolas Tubelis, and Oumar Ballo led the way with 17 points each respectively.

However, it was Arizona’s Kerr Kriisa that stole the show as the junior point guard finished his day with another triple-double in his career. Logging 30 minutes of play, Kriisa scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and dished 12 assists.

Jumping out to a commanding first-half lead, No. 17 Arizona Basketball imposed their will as the Wildcats cruised to the 17-point win.

Starting the game on a 12-2 run, the Wildcats were dominant as they used lockdown defense and transition offense to eventually build to a comfortable 10-point lead in the first 4:39 of play.

Continuing to play aggressively, the Wildcats would eventually grow their lead to as many as 20 points in the first half with 0:46 to play.

A pair of free throws by Southern would cut Arizona’s lead to just 18 at halftime.

Using a strong effort to begin the second half, the Wildcats would open the half on a 30-17 run to lead by as many as 31 with 9:27 to play.

Leading comfortably, head coach Tommy Lloyd would bring in the deeper bench in the final moments of the game which allowed Southern to cut Arizona’s lead to as little as 15 with 1:50 to play.

Luckily, Arizona was able to close things out, eventually pacing themselves to the 95-78 win over Southern.

With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 2-0 on the season, and No. 17 Arizona will resume basketball action next Thursday when they welcome Utah Tech to McKale Center. Tip-off for Thursday’s game is slated at 7:00 PM MST.

Don’t forget to follow us at @ZonaZealots on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of Arizona news, opinions, and recruiting updates!