Wildcats handle Bears despite sluggish offense
Zeke Nnaji had 21 points and five rebounds, and Arizona overcame a sluggish game offensively to beat Cal 6852 at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night.
Dylan Smith added 14 points and Nico Mannion had 10 points and five assists to help the Wildcats (177, 74
Pac12) bounce back from a home loss to UCLA that knocked Arizona out of the Top 25.
Matt Bradley had 19 points and eight rebounds for Cal (104, 47). The Bears have lost three straight and four of five.
Nnaji dominated on a night when Arizona’s offense sputtered. The Wildcats committed only 10 turnovers but most were unforced errors. Mannion twice threw the ball into the stands.
Arizona also struggled beyond the arc, where it was 3for13 until Smith made backtoback shots and Max Hazzard added a third. That capped a 154 run that put Arizona ahead 6243.
The Wildcats led comfortably most of the first half, helped by a big defensive play before halftime when Jemarl Baker Jr. blocked Paris
Austin’s 3point try.
At times, it looked like the Wildcats were still dealing with a hangover from Saturday’s stinging loss to UCLA, but they got themselves together enough to pull away late. That made it eight straight over Cal. The 27 points in the first half were the third fewest scored by Arizona this season.
The Bears had a sixminute scoreless stretch in the first half and a fourminute drought in the second. That was too much to overcome for a team still struggling to find a secondary scorer to complement Bradley. Cal showed more patience offensively but couldn’t get enough of its shots to fall.
Arizona plays at Stanford on Saturday.
Cal will host Arizona State on Sunday.