Early on against in-state rival ASU, No. 4 Arizona got off to a slow start and found itself trailing 16-3 through the game's first four minutes. Then, coach Tommy Lloyd brought in center Oumar Ballo in the game, and the team went on a 14-3 run to get back in the contest.
From that point on, the Wildcats routed ASU to a 91-79, sweeping the season series of the Sun Devils and making it 4-straight wins over the in-state rival.
"That felt like a rock fight to me. They came out, and obviously, they're riding a high from a great win verse UCLA, and they punched us man; and the game was physical from the tip, and our guys weren't ready to go, said Lloyd on his team's ability to respond from a slow start.
"So, we had to lock in, and you know what? I'm really proud of them though. That's a gut check win in a tough environment against a rival, and you're down 14-1, and you could just say it's not your day, and our guys bounce back, and I told him at one point, we're going to win this thing by 20 and we're right there to do that."
Despite Arizona (20-2, 10-1 Pac-12) getting out to a slow start and shooting 29% from the field, the team was able to flip the script thanks to its bench that combined for 29 points on 73% shooting from the field.
"Go and change the game because he didn't like the way we were playing," said Ballo on what Lloyd said with his team trailing 16-3 to start the game. "He said he needed more physicality in the game, and he told me to go change the game."
Ballo off the bench led the way for the Wildcats with his second career double-double posting 13 points and 10 rebounds.
On the season, Ballo is averaging 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds, establishing himself as one of the better role players on the roster.
"First off, let's just take a step back and think about his last couple of weeks and how special it's been," said Lloyd on the performances Ballo is putting together. "Now we're counting on him to do those things before we were hoping, and that's a great place to be as a program when you have guys developing from underneath. To me, that's how you build a sustainable high-level programming. And Oumar gets 100% of the credit and the coaching staff for hanging with him."
The Wildcats had two players with a double-double as forward Azuolas Tubelis posted a team-high 19 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the field to go along with his 11 rebounds.
"Listen, Azuolas is a really high-level player, and I've always thought there are advantages to every lineup. When you can have two bigs in there and obviously, we got our super-sized lineup, our normal big lineup, and then our small lineup, that we're kind of able to go in and out of throughout the game, said Lloyd on the impact Tubelis and his frontcourt has on opponents.
"And when you can have two big guys on the floor, dominating around the paint, it's a real weapon. Then Tubelis is back to run, and you saw him today. When he runs like that, he's the best running big man in the country."
In his last three games, Tubelis has averaged 17 points while shooting 55% from the field and collecting nine rebounds per game during this stretch.
The Wildcats ended the game shooting 57% from the field and went 7 for 19 from the 3-point line even with the slow start. Arizona's defense cooled off the Sun Devils, holding them to 42% from the field, but ASU (7-14, 3-8) raised its shooting average by going 13 for 30 from the 3-point line.
One area that ASU struggled with against Arizona was the size of the frontcourt. The Wildcats exploited the advantage with 52 points in the paint and won the battle of the glass 48-26 in dominating fashion.
Arizona will be hitting the road this week as the team prepares for the Washington schools with a matchup against Washington State (14-7, 7-3) on Thursday at 7 p.m. (MST) on FS1.
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