Arizona (2-0) entered Friday night's game against UT-Rio Grande Valley with a size advantage, and it didn't take long for the Wildcats to begin exploiting the mismatches inside. Tommy Lloyd's team utilized its front court to jump out to an early double-digit lead within the first six minutes of the game.
UA would never look back en route to an easy 104-50 win over the Vaqueros thanks in large part to big performances from center Christian Koloko and power forward Azuolas Tubelis, who combined for 38 points and 20 rebounds in the victory.
"When you play against an undersized team you just want to dominate the paint, get offensive rebounds, get the ball to the bigs and go to work and do good in the post," Koloko said about the approach against UTRGV. "I think that's all we did tonight."
Koloko was able to impact the game on both ends for the Wildcats in the team's second win of the season. He tied a career high with five blocks after reaching that number for the first time earlier this week in Arizona's season opener. He backed that up with strong play on the offensive end as he finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Three of his rebounds came on the offensive glass. Lloyd has touted Koloko as a potential all-conference player this season, and so far the junior has started out at an impressive pace.
"I told you guys all along, he's really good," Lloyd said of his standout center. "I mean, he's a really good player, and I think he's a force. He impacts the game every possession at both ends, and I think he's gonna gain more and more confidence as the year goes on. I think people are really gonna have their hands full figuring out what to do with him."
Tubelis shined on the offensive end of the floor as he led the team with 20 points to go along with nine rebounds. The Vaqueros had no answer for the sophomore forward early in the game as he scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
The UA big man missed just one shot in the game.
"I've challenged Zu all year on being more physical, playing better defense," Lloyd said. "He's checking all those boxes, and I think he can be the best running big man in the country. If you notice, he's running the floor and C-Lo's [Koloko] trailing.
"Zu is so fast, and I just think if he's playing against other fours he has an advantage in early-transition post-ups."
As the team begins to settle into Lloyd's system it is becoming clear that UA is capable of jumping on teams in a hurry with big scoring runs. That showed itself again in the second half when the Wildcats turned a 25-point lead into a 39-point one in a matter of a few minutes behind strong outside shooting.
UA knocked down four 3-pointers in that span as part of a 15-1 run that put the game out of reach for good.
"I think we're starting to figure out how we can score easier, and some guys are figuring out how they can score easier," Lloyd said of his team's offensive production Friday night. "In college basketball it's hard to score 90 points, and to average 90 points is almost impossible in this day and age. If you can average over 80, you're gonna be one of the top scoring teams in the country.
"I just think when you can play at that pace and score like that it puts so much pressure on the other team, and it gives you a little bit of a margin of error on certain nights."
The Wildcats closed the game with a 19-3 run before going to the bench to have the walk-ons and freshmen finish out the contest.
Arizona's first two games have ended in blowout wins, but there are still things Lloyd wants to see his team improve on before it heads to Las Vegas for the Roman Main Event next week.
A matchup against Michigan could await UA, and taking care of the ball is something Lloyd wants to see his team clean up as the season moves along. The Wildcats finished Friday's game with 18 turnovers after having just six in the first win of the season.
"I'm not happy with those," the UA head coach said. "We gotta take care of the ball. We gotta take care of the ball. You play fast, but you play with fundamentals. And, you can't let your guard down.
"... You have to have a foundation of fundamentals and trust simple decisions. If you get a little greedy now you're making hard plays. Hard plays lead to turnovers, so it's something we'll definitely address. Six is an anomaly, last game. Eighteen, it better be an anomaly because we need to be right in the middle of those two."
UA had five players finish in double figures in the game with Benn Mathurin and Justin Kier both having 13 points in the win while big man Oumar Ballo had 12 points and six rebounds off the bench for the Wildcats.
UA will return to the floor Tuesday night as it hosts North Dakota State in a 7 p.m. MST matchup at McKale Center.
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