Fifth-ranked Arizona routed Morgan State 93-68 Thursday night at McKale Center. This win gave head coach Tommy Lloyd the second-most wins through 50 games going 45-5, only behind former Wisconsin Doc Meanwell, who coached in Madison from 1911 to 1934 with the Badgers.
After Morgan State made its first three 3-point shots in the first two minutes of play taking an early 9-4 lead, Arizona (12-1, 1-1 Pac-12) used its size and experience to get back into the swing of things. The Wildcats did so both offensively and defensively in the second half against the Bears (4-8).
"I'm proud of the guys. I told them you know midterms we got an 'A' but the finals are where it's at," Tommy Lloyd said. "We're happy with with where we started. We're all looking forward to a couple of days break I know the guys probably need a couple days away from me and I need some time with my family and then let's get going for the Pac-12 seasons here and we can't wait to get started on it after Christmas."
Arizona was led by forward Azuolas Tubelis, who scored a team-high 26 points on 9 of 10 shooting. Tubelis orchestrated his prowess in other elements as well, recording nine rebounds, three assists, and two steals, including a highlight dribbling around the defender's back before a slam dunk at the rim during the second half.
"Zu [Tubelis] is really coming on, and he's just so consistent, and he scores in different ways," Lloyd noted. He made a couple of threes today and he's handsy on defense, he gets out and transition, he's hitting the offensive glass so I like where he's at and I think he's gonna continue to improve."
Center Oumar Ballo once again showed up in an impactful manner for the Cats, scoring 21 points on a perfect 8 of 8 shooting, grabbing six rebounds, and swatting a block. Together the Wildcats frontcourt of Tubelis and Ballo combined for 47 points on 17-for-18 shooting.
"He's been incredibly consistent," Lloyd said. "He's our anchor. ...I'm really proud of Oumar, the crazy thing about basketball is you got to keep delivering and so we just got to keep him focused on delivering."
The Wildcats were not able to find their stroke behind the arc in the first half, shooting 3 of 10, transitioning into more inside looks. This was demonstrated best when Ballo got his first field goal attempt 14:15 into the game when found cutting inside into the paint. Arizona then dished it inside to the 7-foot big man three more times where he would a perfect 4-for-4 and nine points to close out the half up nine points.
Lloyd insinuated following the win against Montana State that there was a lack of communication and flow from his team. It seems his players took this to heart after their “hangover game” post the win versus then-No. 6 Tennessee, playing together and more efficiently, dishing out 25 assists and shooting 59% from the field.
Arizona showed a lot more energy coming out from halftime opening up with a 10-1 run. The Wildcats went on to hit five 3-pointers while only turning over the ball six times in the second half.
"We just got to have growth mindsets as we come back from this break, we play a good ASU team," Courtney Ramey said. "We can't overlook them because they're good and we play them on their home court, and it's a rivalry game. So we got to be hungry."
Despite playing tight defensively inside, only allowing 20 points in the paint and forcing 15 turnovers, the Wildcats’ issue of defending outside of the arc continued, allowing the Bears to claw their way back into the game, hitting 12 3-pointers with seven coming in the first half. However, Arizona was able to stay poised and made the most of the Bears’ mistakes, scoring 22 of its 93 points off of turnovers.
Lloyd noted last game “I want to play the bench more,” following the win against Montana State after only giving his bench 53 minutes in the blowout victory. This was not only said but shown against the Bears, playing four of his reserves within the first 10 minutes of the contest. After Arizona’s second unit had only Cedric Henderson Jr. and Kylan Boswell producing over the last two games, the Wildcats saw players Henri Veesaar and Adama Bal contributing with Veesaar dishing out three assists and recording a block and Bal scoring six points and two rebounds.
"Learning from the [veterans] experience in building our own experience, it's pretty fresh for all of us," Bal said. "So it's all new, and we're getting experience with the game and I feel like we got way better as a team. We need to have a good bench and it's all about experience. ... We can really give something important to the team."
All in all, Lloyd got what he wanted whilst the bench got more opportunities to prove themselves by receiving seven more minutes than last game with 60 minutes of combined bench action.
"I think this group knows how to win games and I think that's an incredible skill and I also think our greatest strength is that we have room to grow," Lloyd said. "I don't think we've come close to our ceiling yet. I'm gonna be in a growth mindset, and in figuring out how this team can get better week by week in late December, January, February, because that's what it takes. That's really what it comes down to. We've kind of put ourselves in position to have a successful season and now we got to continue to double down on getting better."
Arizona will be back in action against in-state rival ASU (11-2, 2-0) with the Sun Devils coming off a 37-point loss to San Francisco. The game will be on Dec. 31, with a tip-off at noon on FOX.
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