No. 5 Arizona cruises to victory over Morgan State
Azuolas Tubelis scored 26 points, Oumar Ballo added 21 and No. 5 Arizona closed out its nonconference schedule by overpowering visiting Morgan State 93-68 on Thursday night.
The Wildcats (12-1) were coming off a pair of tests in wins over No. 8 Tennessee and Montana State, NCAA Tournament teams a season ago.
Arizona scored 28 more points in the paint than Morgan State (4-8) and used a 17-2 run spanning halftime to give coach Tommy Lloyd a tie for the second-best start (45-5) after 50 games in Division I history. Only Wisconsin’s Doc Meanwell had a better start at 49-1 in the early 1900s.
Arizona shot 58% and had 25 assists on 34 field goals to stretch the nation’s third-longest active home winning streak to 27 games.
Tubelis finished 9 for 10 from the floor. Ballo made all eight of his shots.
Malik Miller kept Morgan State in it early with 3-point shooting and finished with 23 points. Isaiah Burke added 22, but the Bears were blown out despite shooting 12 of 23 from the 3-point arc.
The Bears lead the nation in forcing turnovers and are second in steals. Morgan State had some success disrupting Arizona early (eight first-half turnovers.
But Tubelis and Balo wore Morgan State out inside, combining for 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting. They also repeatedly beat the Bears down the floor for baskets in transition, helping Arizona close on a 7-0 run to lead 41-32 at halftime.
Jalen Wilson scored 21 points and the host Jayhawks
overcame a frigid performance from 3-point range to beat the Crimson.
Kansas (11-1) went 4 for 20 from behind the arc, with no player besides Gradey Dick hitting one until Wilson made one with just over a minute remaining. Wilson scored 11 points in the final 6:24.
Kevin McCullar added 14 points and Dick had 11, going 3 for 7 behind the arc.
Chris Ledlum had 17 points for Harvard (8-5).
Kansas stretched the lead to 11 points early in the second half, but Harvard would not go away.
The Crimson trailed by four points when Dajuan Harris stole an inbounds pass and fed it to Dick, who drained a 3-pointer.
Kobe Brown had 31 points and eight assists, and D’Moi Hodge added 20 points to lead the Tigers over the Fighting Illini in St. Louis.
Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 22 points, but Illinois (8-4) has dropped two of three since upsetting then-No. 2 Texas on Dec. 6.
Missouri (11-1) scored 33 points off 17 Illinois turnovers.