The Wildcats opened up 2022-23 season with a lopsided 117-75 victory over Nicholls State to kick off the second year of the Tommy Lloyd era despite missing starting guard Courtney Ramey, who will miss the first three games of the season.
"Nicholls is a tough team to play against," Lloyd said during his opening statement. "They won their conference two times in-a-row and and just that style they play just kind of relentless and they're so handsy going for steals and they're not afraid to foul and that's good basketball."
Leading the way for No. 17 Arizona (1-0) was forward Azuolas Tubelis, who had a team-high 23 points.. Tubelis scored 20 points in the first half and only attempted two shots in the second half.
The junior ended the night going 10 for 12 from the field while collecting seven rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots showing off that he is becoming more of a complete offensive player. One interesting stat is that he didn't attempt a single 3-point shot the whole night.
"Zu scores easy. And he's built to play in this system. I mean, he's so great in the open court running," Lloyd said. "He's getting really efficient inside and I really challenged him to improve his finishing. I think is his numbers are good, but I think they can be great. And so we're really making a push with him. And this week I got on him earlier in the week about being a little more proficient making his layups and I thought he's been getting us off to a great start and a lot of it is making early layups."
It was the game of the forwards for Arizona with Tubelis, Pelle Larsson and Cedric Henderson Jr. combining for 45 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists.
For Larsson, he showed off his ability to play on both sides of the court recording the first double-double of the season for Arizona with his 16 points and 10 rebounds. Seven of those rebounds came in the first half.
"I've been working all summer with the coaches," Larsson said. "After the season we started working right away. And obviously, being able to practice during the whole preseason this year has helped me a lot. So I mean, I think I'm very prepared."
Plus, Larsson was able to record four assists to go along with his two steals while shooting 55% on the night. Perhaps the most impressive part of his game was that he only needed nine shots to score 16 points.
As a team, the Wildcats shot 72% from the field and went 11 for 18 from behind the arc while holding Nicholls to 40% shooting from the field. However, Arizona turned the ball over 24 times which led to 28 points for the Colonels.
The field goal percentage against Nicholls marks a new program record in a single game for the Wildcats. Arizona's 117 points is also a new school record in a season-opening game.
The Wildcats will be back in action Friday at 7 p.m. (MST) when they host Southern University at McKale Center.
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