Getting off to a slow start has been a common theme for No. 3 Arizona this season, but Thursday night against Oregon State the problem was on the defensive end of the court.

The Beavers were right in the game at the half, trailing 44-42, after shooting 46% from the field. Then, the Wildcats found their stride, locking in on both sides, and rolled to an 83-69 victory.

In the first half, the Beavers shot 46% from the field and went 6 for 13 from the 3-point line. Arizona's defense was able to turn things around, and OSU ended the game shooting 8 for 22 from beyond the arc.

Offensively, Arizona (23-2, 13-1 Pac-12) was able to keep pace from start to finish shooting 53% from the field but struggled from the 3-point line going 4 for 17 for the game.

""I mean, listen, I'm going to wear that one today. I mean, that's on me. We got a little maybe too tricky with our game planning, and to be a good team, you can't trick the game, and that's on me," said coach Tommy Lloyd when asked about the team's slow start to the game.

"We were trying some things defensively, and we obviously weren't doing a very good job of doing and I thought it took some of our aggression away. I just thought we were playing pretty lazy overall and probably a lot of that was the scheme."

More importantly, Arizona has had turnover issues throughout the season, but against Oregon State (3-21, 1-13) the Wildcats turned the ball over nine times to its 26 assists.

"Tommy in practice has been on us, obviously about just using our fundamentals," said guard Dalen Terry who collected five assists in the Wildcats victory. "And as you can see, in the last two games, we've been using our fundamentals and getting guys shots and just trying to find people and playing together and having fun out there on the court."

Leading the offensive charge for Arizona was forward Azuolas Tubelis, who scored a team-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists with one turnover.

"It's not rocket science. I think Azuolas got off to a really good start. Then he hurt his ankle, and he's a soldier, and he toughed it out and gave us some minutes when he wasn't at 100% and not many guys would do that," said Lloyd when asked about Tubelis' performance on Thursday. "Then I think now he's back to 100%, and I don't think it is any more complicated than that."

Over the past five games, Tubelis has been averaging 19 points, 9.8 rebounds while shooting 63% from the field.

The combination of Tubelis and center Christian Koloko in the frontcourt was too much for the Beavers to handle. The duo combined for 38 points on 64% shooting from the field.

Not to be outdone, guard Benn Mathurin scored 20 points on 6 for 14 shooting while collecting two rebounds and two steals.

Mathurin is another Wildcat that is clicking at the right time for Arizona; over his past four games, he has averaged 20.7 points while shooting 55% from the field.

Thursday night's 20-point performance makes it 3-straight 20-plus-point games for Mathurin.

The Wildcats dominated the paint, outscoring the Beavers 52-28, and controlled the glass 42-32 to make it 9-straight games that Arizona has won the rebounding battle.

Arizona will wrap up the weekend with College GameDay coming to Tucson for the Wildcats' game against the Oregon Ducks (17-8, 10-4) with tip off set for 8 p.m. (MST) on ESPN.

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