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 Such a performance rarely happened this season ... until Wednesday
night when Arizona routed rival Arizona State 99-61 at McKale
Center.
In playing perhaps its most complete game of the conference season,
Arizona was as aggressive on offense as it has been this season.
Miller said, save for a few cold-shooting minutes in the first half,
"We certainly played our best."
As for his team's offensive aggressiveness, Miller added, "We have a
lot of answers close to the basket. Ryan Anderson, Dusan (Ristic),
Kaleb (Tarczewski) and even Mark Tollefsen. And we have a number of
perimeter players who can drive the ball. We were attacking the
court where you want to attack."
Arizona had 34 points in the paint, 24 coming in the game-deciding
first half. The Wildcats built a 38-24 halftime lead.
"We knew we had a size advantage tonight, and that's obviously
something we really wanted to use to our advantage," said
Tarczewski, a center who had a career-high 15 rebounds. "Everyone
executed the game plan tonight."
The Wildcats shot 70 percent in the second half and outscored
Arizona State 61-37 following intermission after finishing the first
half on a 21-7 run.
Arizona (22-5, 10-4 Pac-12) won a sixth consecutive game to take
sole possession of first place in the conference for the first time
this season. The Wildcats hold a half-game lead over Oregon (20-6,
9-4).
The Wildcats completed their first regular-season sweep of the Sun
Devils since 2013.
"There are people out there who think that (Arizona) is not a Final
Four team," Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. "Well, they need
to wake up. With their guard play, experience and size, there are
not a lot of holes in what they do. They have a good plan (and)
they're coached very well."
Freshman guard Allonzo Trier scored 20 points to lead five Arizona
players in double figures.
Backup center Ristic scored 16 points for Arizona, and senior
forward Anderson had 15 points. Guards Gabe York and Kadeem Allen
added 12 points apiece.
Arizona State (14-13, 4-10) lost for the fifth time in six games.
The Sun Devils shot a season-low 32 percent, including just 24
percent in the first half.
Guard Andre Spight and forward Obinna Oleka scored 15 points apiece
for Arizona State.
Miller was so impressed with his team he said he could go down a
long list of superlatives but chose just three:
--Sophomore guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright had seven assists and no
turnovers and was impressive defensively.
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--Tarczewski is playing very well and now has 29 rebounds in two
games. "I've never seen him rebound the ball like he is rebounding,"
Miller said. "He looks like an NBA center playing college."
--And Trier, playing in his fourth game back from a broken right
hand, is coming back into form. "It's taken him a couple of games to
get back into the flow," Miller said. "Tonight he played an
unselfish game."
Arizona jumped out to an early lead, and just three minutes in,
Hurley called a timeout to settle his team.
Arizona State missed its first six shots and didn't score in the
first four minutes as Arizona took a 6-0 lead and later a 13-4
advantage by using its big men. Tarczewski and Ristic scoring eight
of Arizona's first 14 points.
However, Arizona then went 1-for-8 and Arizona State went on a 13-2
run to tie it at 17 with 8:11 left in the half.
Arizona followed with a 14-5 run to retake control of the half
before ending with the one-sided halftime advantage.
NOTES: Senior C Kaleb Tarczewski inched closer to becoming the
school's all-time winningest player. With 107 victories, he is two
wins shy of Matt Muehlebach's record. Muehlebach holds the
distinction of being the only Wildcat to never lose a game at home
in a four-year career. ... Arizona and George Washington are the
only schools in the country with only four active 1,000-point
scorers on their rosters. The four Wildcats are F Ryan Anderson
(1,694), Tarczewski (1,122), F Mark Tollefsen (1,238) and G Gabe
York (1,028). ... Arizona sophomore G Parker Jackson-Cartwright
started his third consecutive game and fourth of the season. ...
Despite the disparity in team success the last nine years, Arizona
is 9-10 vs. Arizona in the past 19 meetings. ... Arizona junior G
Elliott Pitts left the team for personal reasons and will miss the
remainder of the season due to his own choice, coach Sean Miller
said. Pitts has not played since early December.
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