Arizona beats North Dakota State 83-53, but Allonzo Trier exits with knee injury

Trier suffered a left knee injury in the second half and did not return

The 18th-ranked Arizona Wildcats beat North Dakota State 83-53 on Monday in McKale Center for their sixth straight win, but all eyes are on star guard Allonzo Trier, who exited with an injury in the second half.

Arizona’s leading scorer banged his left knee against Paul Miller as the NDSU guard made a move to the basket with 9:55 left.

Here is how Allonzo Trier injured his left knee. He was helped to the locker room with a pretty bad limp. http://pic.twitter.com/ASi3sFW4qg

— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapire) December 19, 2017

Trier immediately fell to the floor, clutched his knee and repeatedly pounded the court in obvious pain.

He was helped to the locker room by team trainers and would not return, but Sean Miller seemed optimistic about the injury, believing Trier suffered a bone bruise.

Arizona will know more about the severity Tuesday.

"We're hoping for some good news,” Miller said. “It seems to be positive."

Trier had 15 points and four assists on 5-8 shooting before exiting.

Deandre Ayton led the Wildcats with a game-high 25 points and nine rebounds on 11-17 shooting. Rawle Alkins added 11 points and six rebounds in his second start of the season.

Playing in its second game in three days, Arizona started the game like, well, a team playing its second game in three days.

The Bison made four early 3s to jump out to a 16-13 lead and had the game tied at 22 with 6:32 left in the first half.

But Arizona (9-3) finished the half on a 16-0 run and outscored NDSU 45-31 in the second half to pick up its sixth straight win.

Arizona shot 50 percent from the field (though just 5-20 from 3) and held NDSU to 37 percent shooting. The Bison finished just 8-27 from 3 as Arizona turned in one of its best defensive performances of the season.

Arizona outrebounded NDSU 41-29 and had a 34-21 edge in points in the paint.

Ayton had several highlight plays including a fallaway jumper, an Olajuwon-esque dropstep that led to a dunk, and several alley-oops, including one from Trier that put Arizona up 38-22 at halftime.

Dusan Ristic had eight points and eight rebounds, along with one assist, finding Parker Jackson-Cartwright on the wing for a 3 which extended Arizona’s lead to 30-22.

Those were Jackson-Cartwright’s only points, but he did have three assists and zero turnovers. Arizona only had five turnovers as a team.

With the game out of hand, Arizona was able to utilize its bench, which scored 21 points.

Brandon Randolph had seven points, while Ira Lee, Alex Barcello, and Dylan Smith each had four.

Emmanuel Akot, who did not play in the last two games, had two points in 10 minutes. Barcello played 10 minutes after missing Saturday’s game vs. New Mexico with an ankle injury.

Arizona returns to action Thursday when it hosts the UConn Huskies. Whether or not Trier will play in that game remains to be seen.

“We think he's doing well,” Alkins said, “but time will tell."

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Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire

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