There were moments during Arizona's game against Washington Thursday night when it looked like it would be a familiar story. The Wildcats(14-6, 4-3 Pac-12) jumped out to a double-digit lead only to see it disappear before the Huskies gained control. Rather than fold, however, Sean Miller's team was able to hang around and when UW started to falter it was Arizona that took advantage of the moment.
The Huskies (12-10, 2-7) made just one of their last eight shots and struggled to get anything going offensively down the stretch after making several 3-pointers throughout the night. Eventually, Arizona was able to muster enough offensively to put the Huskies away with a 75-72 victory giving Miller's team its first road win of the season.
There were plenty of ups and downs for UA throughout the night as the team came out of the gate with a few too many turnovers. Once the Wildcats were able to settle down they used a run sparked by strong play from Stone Gettings to build up the early 10-point lead.
Eventually, Washington gained control and went up by as many as nine points, but it was UA's role players who helped keep the team afloat as the Wildcats chipped away at the UW lead.
Redshirt sophomore guard Jemarl Baker Jr. was able to play the hero role Thursday night as he finished with a career-high 17 points with all but one of his baskets coming in the second half. He scored nine of the team's last 11 points to help lift UA to the road win.
In all, the Wildcats were able to get 28 points from their bench players with six of the team's 10 3-pointers in the game coming from that group.
Gettings also had his best game as a starter as he finished with 13 points and three rebounds despite some foul trouble throughout the night.
A critical moment in the game came when Washington freshman Jaden McDaniels came up with a big dunk on a baseline drive that put the Huskies up by nine points, but after the play he said something to UA's Ira Lee earning a technical foul.
From that point on the Wildcats were able to cut the lead down and eventually flip the game in their favor.
The Wildcats tend to have success when the group outside of their three freshmen starters are able to contribute and that was certainly the case Thursday night. Still, UA's young players were able to have an impact as well with Nico Mannion finishing the game with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists and he only took eight shots in the win.
Zeke Nnaji wasn't able to score in double figures but he did have nine points and eight rebounds to contribute in the victory while Josh Green finished with five points and three assists in the game.
The Wildcats will look for their first road sweep of the season Saturday when travel to Pullman to face Washington State at 6 p.m. MST.
