Saturday, February 6, 2016

Arizona vs. Washington final score: Wildcats complete road sweep, beat Huskies 77-72

Happy plane

It was not easy for the Arizona Wildcats, partially due to the Washington Huskies, but also due to themselves as well. But at the end of the day, a 77-72 win in Seattle gives Arizona its first road sweep of the Pac-12 season, and puts them right back in the mix for a regular season championship.

It was back-and-forth the whole way (11 lead changes), but the Wildcats had just enough at the end to close out the five-point win. Both teams kept each other in the game really, as Arizona finished with 20 turnovers, and Washington countered with 18 of their own.

The Wildcats also shot just 39% as a team, which, winning on the road with those kind of numbers seems impossible, but it was done.

After a horrible start from Kadeem Allen (four early turnovers while returning to the starting lineup), the Wildcats started to settle in a little bit on both ends of the floor thanks to a few Dusan Ristic low post moves. He and Ryan Anderson set the tone down low, and Mark Tollefsen was doing a little bit of everything to bring Arizona back to even with Washington.

Arizona went on an 8-0 run to close out the first half thanks to a couple of Gabe York threes. That put the Cats up six at the break. The two teams had 11 turnovers apiece in the first half, which led to some entertaining plays, but not particularly great basketball.

Outside of that thirty seconds, York was not good. He would finish the game 7/21 from the field, compiling 18 points in that effort.

Anderson led the team in scoring though, pouring in 22 just three days after a career-best 31 at Washington State. The Boston College transfer's numbers on the Washington trip were ridiculous:

Here are some other quick notes:

  • Aloha Allonzo: As was anticipated, Saturday was the first game Allonzo Trier appeared in since breaking his hand exactly four weeks ago. We had to say goodbye to him pretty quickly though, as he only played 15 minutes before fouling out, because no one knows what a charge is anymore. Trier had seven points and a couple of steals in his first time back out there in live game action.
  • Rolling Ristic: Not really sure why he didn't get the ball every time down the floor, as Dusan Ristic was tearing Washington apart inside. He scored 11 points in 13 minutes. His low post game continues to be a thing of beauty.
  • Favorable finish: The Wildcats now have just two road games remaining (Colorado and Utah) in their final seven regular season contests. Now sitting at 7-4 in conference play, the schedule makers may have done Arizona some favors with this closing stretch, as a slew of home games could be the perfect way to start heating up before the postseason.

That favorable schedule begins Friday night, as the UCLA Bruins will make their way to Tucson before Arizona takes on the USC Trojans on Sunday.



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