Arizona's game against St. John's in San Francisco Saturday night felt familiar. If you changed the name on the jerseys it would look eerily similar to the Wildcats first two losses of the season.
UA gave up a big lead and battled back to close the gap to within one possession in the final minutes. However, a late surge once again went for naught as Sean Miller's team fell to St. John's 70-67 as the Red Storm was able to hold off the Wildcats at Chase Center dropping UA to 10-3 to finish out nonconference play.
St. John's (11-2) pushed its lead to as many as 16 points, but the Wildcats were able to chip away despite another off shooting night. Arizona did a lot of its work from the free-throw line late in the game and eventually took a one-point lead on a 3-pointer from Max Hazzard with 1:23 left to play.
Nick Rutherford made a basket for St. John's to give his team back the one-point lead, but the Wildcats still had the ball and what could have been the final possession with just over 20 seconds left to play.
Miller went to his point guard Nico Mannion for the final shot, but the freshman wasn't able to convert and UA was forced to foul before Julian Champagnie hit two free throws to end the game.
All three of Arizona's losses so far this season have had many similar elements including off shooting nights both from two-point range and from deep. The Wildcats finished the game shooting 40 percent from the field but just 19 percent from behind the 3-point line by going 3-for-19 from deep.
UA also struggled to take care of the ball early in the game as it ended the first half with 10 giveaways leading to 14 points off turnovers for the Red Storm. When combined with a lack of bench scoring (eight points) for the Wildcats, it was just too much to overcome even when St. John's went cold for a time.
"Some of our 3-point shots in the first half, you know, we were shooting NBA threes," Miller said during his postgame radio interview of his team's poor shooting performance Saturday night. "... That speaks to our lack of poise and really our lack of confidence at the beginning of the game, but we definitely gained more confidence as the game grew on.
"We gotta be that type of team for longer periods of time."
Arizona was not able to get the ball to freshman power forward Zeke Nnaji on the final possession on a night when he was having another stellar performance. Nnaji finished the loss with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds and he only missed two shots from the field in 37 minutes of action.
He also connected on eight of his 10 free-throw attempts in the game.
Mannion finished with 19 points and three assists in 37 minutes while fellow freshman Josh Green had 11 points and six rebounds with six of his points coming from the free-throw line.
UA won't be back in action until after the holidays as it opens up Pac-12 Conference play against in-state rival Arizona State at McKale Center on Jan. 4.
