Cats alter lineup, post home victory
Maybe a little change was all the Arizona Wildcats needed.
Having lost five of their previous seven games, Arizona went home to McKale Center on Thursday, changed its starting lineup and found the sort of Max Hazzard they had long been expecting.
All that helped translate into Arizona’s 93-77 win over Utah, moving the Wildcats to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12 heading into a showdown Saturday against Colorado at McKale Center.
Having been mostly just a limited factor over the past month, Hazzard on Thursday set season-highs in points (24) and 3-pointers made (6 for 10), becoming the kind of 3-point threat he was expected to be since arriving as a grad transfer from UC Irvine last season.
Forward Zeke Nnaji matched Hazzard's 24 points while adding eight rebounds. Hazzard had averaged just 2.75 points over his previous four games while averaging 13.8 minutes total but UA coach Sean Miller still spoke highly of his game last week.
“He’s a game-changer,” Miller said. Meanwhile, UA went with Stone Gettings over Chase Jeter in the starting lineup. Arizona said Jeter was “day-today” after suffering back spasms, though Miller has indicated over the past week he was considering a lineup change.
Miller benched Jeter for the final 18 minutes of UA’s loss at Oregon on Jan. 9, and Jeter had just one rebound each against Oregon and Oregon State last weekend.
Jeter was present for pregame warmups but did not sit on the UA team bench during the game, although new Georgetown transfer James Akinjo did, having joined the team for the spring semester. Akinjo will be eligible to play next season, either in December or (if he files a successful waiver) at the start of the season.
Arizona shot 47.8% overall from the field and hit 15 of 29 3-pointers while outrebounding Utah 38-32. The Utes shot 43.9% and hit 10 of 28 3-pointers after making just 2 of 11 3s in the first half.
Hazzard’s 24 points pushed him to and beyond the 1,000-point mark for his college career, to 1,016 total.
He scored 920 at UC Irvine and had 72 at Arizona through the Wildcats' first 16 games, putting him eight points shy of the milestone entering Thursday's game.
Leading 52-28 at halftime and by up to 27 early in the first half, the Wildcats experienced their biggest hiccup of the second half when they started having too much fun.
That is, reserve forward Ira Lee picked up a technical foul – and a temporary benching from Miller – after staring down Utah’s Mikael Jantunen after dunking midway through the second half.