It's just how the Pac-12 Conference portion of the season is going to go, so get used to it. Just a few days after going to overtime with Utah in the first week of conference play, Arizona found itself in another conference battle as Stanford pushed the Wildcats for all 40 minutes played at Maples Pavilion Wednesday night.
It ended with the Wildcats (12-4, 3-0 Pac-12) winning their fifth straight game and remaining undefeated against Stanford (7-8, 0-3) in the Sean Miller era after the 75-70 victory.
The Cardinal did not make life easy on the 'Cats with plenty of back and forth throughout the evening. Stanford took a six-point lead during one stretch in the second half with just under 13 minutes to play as Miller's team went through a bit of a scoring drought.
UA eventually reeled off a 14-2 run to get back in control, but Stanford would not go away during a separate drought for the Wildcats and the game was back to within one point at the final media timeout. As the teams traded blows it was UA that came out on top with some impressive play from senior point guard Justin Coleman who created plenty of opportunities for his teammates.
It turned into the type of fight UA has seen plenty of this season, but the Wildcats did enough in the end to remain atop the Pac-12 standings for another day.
"I think more than anything when you're on the road you just have to have a sense of belief," Miller told reporters after the game. "And a sense of understanding of the time, the score and the situation. ... Our guys did a good job down the stretch, they really did."
The Wildcats were certainly not perfect, but contributions from the bench helped greatly in the team's third straight conference win. The bench provided 25 points in the victory led by a career-high 12 points from sophomore forward Ira Lee. Fellow forward Ryan Luther contributed 10 points off the bench and Dylan Smith had three points that came on an important sequence when Stanford was starting to pull away at one point in the second half.
Lee was truly the story for the Wildcats, however, as he had to shake off a rough start in a game the featured numerous fouls and several UA players in foul trouble. Lee had three fouls before the game even reached the eight-minute mark in the first half.
He bounced back with some impressive plays down the stretch and helped the Wildcats secure another victory.
"I just wanted to win and we wanted to win," Lee said after his performance. "Coach put his trust in me putting me in. Obviously, Chase [Jeter] fouled out, but I had to step up and I'm just happy we got the road win."
The foul trouble was only part of the issues for Arizona Wednesday night as the Wildcats had no answer for Stanford sophomore forward KZ Okpala who ended his night with a game-high 29 points. He was a big reason the Cardinal would not go away and kept the game close to the final buzzer.
"We did a lot of things defensively that I hope we can get better at, and certainly have to be better at the next time out we play against them" Miller said. "We knew KZ Okpala was a terrific player. I think he's one of the best players in the Pac-12. We hit about a six-minute stretch in the second half where we really defended him the right way. Dylan Smith guarded him and we gave great help, we drew a charge, we drew two charges. You have to crowd him and you have to make him pass it.
"You can't let him will himself to the rim, but other than that six minutes we really didn't have an answer."
Despite all that was working against Arizona with Okpala playing well and the Wildcats in foul trouble, Miller's team was able to finish with five players in double figures led by Brandon Randolph who had 17 points plus a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman guard Brandon Williams had 12 points in his first conference road game while Jeter, who fouled out with just over two minutes left to play, finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
Coleman finished with nine points and four assists but spent the final stretch of the game on the bench after he was fouled and hit in the groin area before falling to the ground and landing awkwardly. When the senior point guard landed he appeared to re-injure the same shoulder he injured last week.
UA assistant coach Justin Gainey said during the team's postgame radio show that the extra day in between games should help Coleman recover and the feeling right now is he will be OK moving forward.
