Wildcats battle back, take down Cyclones
LAHAINA, HawaiiThree easy games at McKale Center told the Arizona Wildcats they could play a little defense and handle the ball pretty well, but there was one ingredient nobody could have possibly known about until Monday.
That is, they also have heart. At least the Wildcats showed it during a 71-66 win over Iowa State in a first-round Maui Invitational game that they trailed by nine at halftime and by 10 with 11 minutes to go.
“I’m just proud of our guys. I feel like today just showed how we loved each other as brothers,” said senior guard Justin Coleman, who led the Wildcats in scoring with 18 points. “It just shows the connection we have as a team because we got out-rebounded, we got down 10, but it showed the effort and the togetherness we had through adversity to get back and win the game.”
The connection apparently starts at the top.
While Coleman scored his 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting, making 4 of 8 3pointers, fellow co-captain Chase Jeter had 10 points and 12 rebounds, a much-needed inside presence against the smaller but notably physical Cyclones, who outrebounded the UA 4034 but struggled with 14 turnovers and 16.7 percent 3-point shooting.
Arizona, 4-0, faced Gonzaga late Tuesday night, already having surpassed its dreary performance in their multi-team event last season, when they went 0-3 in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“You come to this tournament, you don’t want to be the team that is 0-3 when they leave Maui,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “Every win here is a very hard one to get.”
That much became clear immediately inside before a packed crowd of about 2,000 fans, the majority of whom were pulling for the Cyclones and quite vocal about it. During some intense early possessions, Arizona’s defense helped the Wildcats take an early jump during a particularly hard-played initial four minutes, after which the UA led 8-4 while Iowa State went 2-7 from the field and had two turnovers.