Anthony Dell'Orso made seven of his 11 shots from the floor and made a career six three-point shots while tying his career best with nine shots from beyond the arc as Arizona beat Colorado 78-63 on Saturday afternoon at McKale Center. Dell'Orso's previous career high for made three-pointers was five versus Davidson in November.
The 20 points Dell'Orso scored on Saturday were one off his Arizona high. Dell'Orso scored 21 points in the November win over Davidson. The career high for Dell'Orso is 35 points set last season with Campbell against East Carolina. Dell'Orso leads Arizona players in the main rotation shooting 47.9 percent on three-point attempts.
Saturday was the 13th time in his career that Dell'Orso made two-thirds of his three-point attempts in a game. Dell'Orso is just outside the top 10 in the Big XII in three-point field goals made and he would lead the conference in three-point percentage if he enough attempts to qualify.
In conference play, Dell'Orso is now averaging 8.6 points per game, shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 51.7 percent on three-point attempts in Big XII games. Dell' Orso is averaging 9.3 PPG, shooting 50.0 percent from the floor and 47.9 percent on three-point attempts overall this season,.
Dell'Orso was critical versus Colorado's zone. Arizona is generally not a good three-point shooting team. The Wildcats are shooting 32.5 percent on three-point attempts this season. Entering the game versus Colorado, Arizona was 265th nationally in three-point percentage.
As opponents see on video the success Colorado had using a zone versus Arizona, Dell'Orso will become more important. Dell'Orso is by far the best three-point shooter Arizona has. To keep opponents out of the zone, Dell'Orso will need to continue shooting the three efficiently.
Arizona faces its toughest test to this point of the season when they host Iowa State on Monday. Iowa State entered their game on Saturday versus Arizona State 170th nationally holding opponents to 32.8 percent on three-point attempts. Arizona made eight of its 24 three-point attempts in a 76-61 loss to Iowa State on Saturday.