After moving up in the rankings three spots, No. 8 Arizona started off the game slow against Northern Colorado and seeing guard Daylen Kountz score 23 first-half points.

The Wildcats (10-0, 1-0 Pac-12) were able to turn things around in the second half. Outscoring Northern Colorado 49-34 to go on to win 101-76, making it 10-straight wins to start the season.

"We obviously didn't execute well, defensively, and maybe we're stuck in between plans a little bit, and that's something the coaching staff will clean up. Then individually, there are some breakdowns, but at the end of the day, Northern Colorado gets a ton of credit.

"I mean, they came out, ran some interesting concepts, and were really aggressive, and they're veteran players. So those guys have been playing in that system for four or five years, and they came out today and had a week to prepare, and they did a great job, and I thought our guys just did a good job of not panicking hanging in there and kind of asserting their will and, and wearing them out over the course of the game," said coach Tommy Lloyd on the Arizona's performance against UNC.

During the first half, Kountz scored his 23 points by going 9 for 11 from the field and went 3 for 3 from the 3-point line, counting for over half of UNC's points.

"He's a really good player, for one, and he just kind of had it going. I think we went under a screener or two early on him, and he banged into three and probably said, hey, you know, this might be one of my last chances playing a Pac-12 team, so I'm going to let it rip tonight.

"And to his credit, they did a good job getting to him to his left hand over and over again, and he was in attack mode going downhill and would stop and hit a pull-up. He is just a really good player, and individually we didn't do a good job guarding them individually or as a team," said Lloyd on why Kountz was so successful.

Arizona's defense was able to put things together in the second half, holding UNC (6-6, 2-0 Big Sky) to 38% shooting from the field and locking down Kountz, who scored 10 points while going 3 for 8 from the field.

"We might have changed the level of our big and some of the coverages and maybe switched a few things here and there, but at the end of the day, we were trying to do some of those things in the first half, we probably weren't execute them as well," Lloyd said on the adjustments the team made on Kountz.

The Wildcats utilized their strength in the post, outscoring UNC 60-28 in the paint, and won the battle on the glass 44 to 24 while collecting 13 offensive rebounds that led to 22 second-chance points.

Forward Azuolas Tubelis and center Christian Koloko dominated the paint by scoring 35 combined points.

Tubelis finished with 16 points on 6 for 9 shooting while collecting eight rebounds and eight assists, coming close to a triple-double.

"So they played only one big man in No. 13. He played like a guard. So we switched with him every time. Offensively, I just needed to dominate the paint. And I think I did it well, so I just want to say thank you to my teammates who fed me, and I just got to the ball," said Tubelis on his performance.

Although guard Benn Mathurin couldn't follow up his 30-point performance against Illinois with a 20-plus point type of game and ending his streak of scoring 20 or more points at three games, he was able to impact the game in different ways.

Mathurin scored 11 points, going 4 for 8 from the field, but his most significant impact was on the glass as he collected nine rebounds and ended his night with five steals.

"You've got to find other ways. When a team is going to guard you like that, you're not going to get your rhythm jump shots that sometimes the offense gets you. You have to find other ways you can tribute whether it's in transition, whether it's driving to the basket and making a simple finish.

"The main thing is offensive rebounding, and he had a couple of big put-backs there at the end, and when he was getting those, we really kind of extended early," said Lloyd on Mathurin's impact on the game.

Arizona will face California Baptist (8-2), which has lost both of its games on the road this season. The two teams will face off Saturday at 4 p.m. (MST) with the game being televised on Pac-12 Networks.

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