Arizona routs California, stays unbeaten in Pac-12
BERKELEY, Calif. – The Arizona Wildcats aren’t perfect overall. After squeaking by Utah and Stanford in their two previous games, they couldn’t hit a bucket for over eight minutes of the first half Saturday at Cal.
But after drubbing Cal 87-65 on Saturday at Haas Pavilion despite their first-half dry spell, the Wildcats are 13-4 overall and 4-0 in Pac-12 play after recording their first road sweep of the season.
Maybe there’s something to be said for that.
“Most definitely,” said Chase Jeter, who led Arizona with a career-high 23 points and also pulled down nine rebounds. “We’re a resilient team. We’ve got great guys and I’ve got great teammates.
“In order for us to keep that fight, to be able to close out games, especially in the fashion that we did tonight against a good Cal team, that’s big for us.”
But before they host Oregon and Oregon State this week, the Wildcats’ win showed that they have some things to work on.
Even though they ran away with Saturday’s game in part by holding the Bears to just 34.5 percent shooting, UA coach Sean Miller said they still had room to improve defensively.
Ball-handling is another item on the to-do list. The Wildcats turned the ball over seven times during their first-half dry spell, during which they also missed all eight shots they took.
The fact that they returned after halftime and didn’t commit a single turnover for eight minutes, and only four during the entire second half, suggests they can take care of the ball pretty well.
Justin Coleman led the Wildcats’ improved ball-handling in the second half, finishing with 13 points and five assists to only one turnover.