Arizona basketball teams get convincing season opening wins

The Arizona men's and women's basketball teams earned easy season opening wins on Monday.
Dayton v Arizona
Dayton v Arizona / Christian Petersen/GettyImages
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Arizona began the game with 13-0 and 20-2 leads and cruised to a 93-64 win over Canisius in the 2024-25 season opener on Monday night. The Arizona women outscored Texas-Arlington in each of the first three-quarters of a 73-54 win in their season opener on Monday afternoon at McKale Center.

Arizona cruised to a 52-30 halftime lead after the 20-2 start. Caleb Love got Arizona off the scorching start with seven points in just over the first two minutes of the game. Love led Arizona with 17 points, Jaden Bradley scored 15 and K.J. Lewis 15 to lead the Wildcats.

Paul McMillan IV led three Canisius players in double figures with 20 points. Canisius shot 43.1 percent from the floor and made 10-26 three-point attempts. Fifteen Arizona players received playing time and 13 scored. Motiejus Krivas played after missing the exhibition games and scored nine points with five rebounds.

The Arizona women led 21-13 after one quarter, extended the lead to 34-21 at halftime and were up 55-36 after three quarters on their way to a 73-54 season-opening win. Isis Beh, Breya Cunningham, Sahnya Jah and Jada Williams all led Arizona with 10 points. Cunningham paced the Wildcats with 10 rebounds.

Williams was only 2-15 from the floor and 0-5 on three-point attempts but made all six of her free throws and had three rebounds. Arizona shot 39.7 percent from the floor, made 4-18 three-point shots and 19 of 22 from the free throw line. UTA shot 32.7 percent from the floor made 3-12 threes and 17-26 free throws.

Arizona and UTA were both sloppy with the ball. The Wildcats had 19 turnovers to 21 for the Mavericks. Arizona scored 17 points off of turnovers and UTA had 19. Arizona had a 40-22 edge on points in the paint and that was the difference in the game. Arizona scored the first six points and never trailed.

Arizona hosts Old Dominion on Saturday at 2 PM. The Arizona women's basketball team hosts Tarleton State on Thursday at 6 PM. The women play eight games in 23 days to start the 2024-25 season.

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