Arizona cruises to 19th straight win over Stanford

Brandon Williams returned from a six-game absence Sunday and the Arizona Wildcats continued their domination of the Stanford Cardinal in painless fashion.

The Wildcats cruised to a wire-to-wire 70-54 win, their 19th straight victory over the Cardinal, a streak that stretches back to January 2009.

Four Arizona players scored in double figures, with Ira Lee notching a career-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Chipping in 14 apiece were Justin Coleman and Chase Jeter, the latter doing so despite fouling out with 5:29 left, while Brandon Randolph added 10 (all coming in the second half).

Williams, out since Jan. 26 with a sore right knee, played 18 minutes off the bench. He didn’t appear to be limited by his injury and even crashed into the scorer’s table to chase down a loose ball.

The freshman only scored four points, but dished out three assists, displaying a playmaking ability the Wildcats have sorely missed over the last month.

Arizona (16-12, 7-8) went 1-5 in the six games Williams missed, but is now 15-7 when he suits up. This was UA’s first time being at full strength since Jan. 17 against Oregon.

The Wildcats, who shot 44 percent and only turned the ball over nine times, jumped out to an early 14-3 lead and were up 31-23 heading into the locker room, weathering a few Stanford runs. The Cardinal (14-13, 7-8) cut the deficit to three twice, but Arizona answered with buckets both times.

Arizona increased its lead to double digits early in the second half, before the Cardinal made back-to-back 3s to make it 37-33 with 15:14 left.

That is when Williams drove into the lane and kicked out a pass to Randolph, who buried a 3. Alex Barcello drilled a triple a few moments later to extend UA’s lead to 49-39 with 12:01 left, and Randolph hit again from deep to make it 52-41, this time off an assist from Coleman.

Two free throws by Bryce Wills trimmed UA’s lead to 58-50 with 4:44 left, but that was as close as the Cardinal would get. Lee threw down a pair of thunderous dunks to put UA up by 16 in the final minutes, punctuating the win.

With the victory, the Wildcats move into a three-way tie for seventh in the Pac-12 with Stanford and Colorado. Arizona is two games behind Utah, which is in fourth place, the last position to get a prized first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament.

This story will be updated.

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