Nnaji leads another dominant effort for Arizona in 30-point win over NMSU

Sunday's game against New Mexico State was supposed to be a challenge for No. 19 Arizona. Instead, it turned into the same old thing fans at McKale Center have become used to during the first two weeks of the season. The Wildcats (4-0) jumped out to an early 10-point lead and the crowd at UA's home arena stood and stood some more as it took the Aggies (2-2) more than five minutes of game time to score their first points in what turned into an 83-53 win for the home team.

After Sunday's victory at McKale Center, Arizona is now beating its opponents by an average of 34.5 points so far this season.

Head coach Sean Miller did his best to hype up Sunday's matchup with the Aggies, which finished the 2018-19 season with 30 victories and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament back in March. It would not live up to what Miller sold as NMSU was missing a couple key players including starting point guard AJ Harris in addition to having some of its available players not at 100 percent.

What it culminated in was another dominant showing by the Wildcats led by freshman Zeke Nnaji.

Balanced scoring and contributions from the entire roster has been a theme of the season for Arizona so far and that was again the story Sunday as three players scored in double figures and all 11 scholarship players were able to get on the floor.

Still, Nnaji has been the story for the Wildcats so far this season and he continued the impressive start to his college career with a perfect showing from the field. The freshman forward was a perfect 7 for 7 from the floor and 5 for 5 from the free-throw line. He didn't attempt a shot in the second half but finished with a game-high 19 points.

"Give credit to my teammates, they've been giving me the ball in great places to score and I've had a lot of easy looks," said Nnaji, who has made 24 of his last 27 shots included his last 15 in a row from the field.

The Minnesota native said he hasn't had a stretch like he is in right now and it has put Nnaji among the top five players in the NCAA when it comes to field goal percentage through the first two weeks of the season.

As Arizona continues to roll over opponents in the nonconference portion of the season there are still things Miller is seeing that he wants to have improve. Sunday night one of those things was the amount of touches for Nnaji in the second half.

"It's our job, it's my job to make sure we get a guy like him the ball, because he's made over 15 in a row," Miller said. "I think that pretty much speaks for itself, but he's really efficient and he's strong. We'll continue to develop that part of our team where you want to have that balance of ball gets inside, ball gets to the hot hand and then we mix in 3-point shots with that. A real good balance.

"The analogy that I would use to our players is it's like that college football team that they look great and all they do is pass, but if you don't establish any type of running game eventually you're gonna run up against your equal and you're gonna wish you did. We want to make sure we have good balance."

Outside of Nnaji, the scoring production game from the guards as Nico Mannion and his backup at the point guard spot, Jemarl Baker Jr., combined for 31 points in Sunday's win with seven of their 11 baskets coming from behind the 3-point line. Miller said after the victory that the current group is one of his best shooting teams during his time in Tucson.

"Our firepower from three, you can really feel it in transition," Miller said. "It's something that's not going to be as easy for the defense to deal with this year."

Miller continues to harp on the defensive side of the ball and he was pleased with the amount of deflections his group had Sunday. The Wildcats eventually forced 20 turnovers in the win with the result being 25 points from those miscues on the other end.

"I thought our defense in the first half, that first 20 minutes, reminded me of where we were a couple years ago," he said. "We had 25 deflections at the half, that's a stat we keep. Our goal is between 25 and 30 for a game. We had 25 in the half and that shows you we had a lot of players playing with tremendous effort and also in the right place while they're playing with great effort.

"When you play a deep bench you can really find that defensive pressure and you can continue to do it throughout the game instead of wearing down."

Arizona is back on the floor for a couple more games this week when it faces South Dakota State on Thursday night ahead of next Sunday's meeting with Long Beach State.

WATCH: Recapping Arizona's 83-53 win over NMSU

GALLERY: Photos from Arizona's win over New Mexico State

DISCUSS: Arizona's 4-0 start

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