Tubelis leads the Wildcats past Golden Bears in win

Azuolas Tubelis had 23 points and 12 rebounds to help bail out another poor Arizona perimeter shooting performance in the Wildcats’ 81-68 win over Cal on Sunday at McKale Center.

The Wildcats, who lost 81-66 on Thursday at Utah while shooting just 4 of 28 from 3-point range, struggled to put away the winless Bears while making just 4 of 20 3s this time.

After taking a 42-33 halftime lead, the Wildcats made just 3 of 11 shots early in the second half through the first media timeout and expanded their lead only to 49-39.

They didn’t pull much farther away the rest of the half. Three-pointers from Askew and Cal’s Kuany Kuany helped keep the Bears around 10 points behind, with the Wildcats still shooting just 32.0% through the first 14 minutes of the second half.

Arizona finished shooting 49.2% overall but just 20% from beyond the arc. Combined with a 4 for 28 3-point effort on Thursday, the Wildcats are shooting just 16.7% from 3-point range in Pac-12 play.

In the first half, Tubelis scored 15 points and Ballo added 11 to help Arizona take a 42-33 lead over California. Arizona led by up to 15 points but did not run away from the winless Bears (0-8) throughout the half.

Cal shot 39.4% from the field and made only 2 of 10 3-pointers but Arizona hit only 3 of 10 3s and only 9 of 14 free throws.

The Wildcats opened up a 15-point lead, 32-17, on a hook shot from Oumar Ballo with 7:02 left in the half but Cal guard Devin Askew put the Bears quickly back in the game.

Hitting just one of his first five shots, the former UA recruiting target hit a 3pointer to make it 32-20 and then converted a four-point play when Pelle Larsson fouled Askew on his next 3pointer. Then, after Ballo scored to give Arizona a 34-24 lead, two scores from Cal center Lars Thiemann cut the Wildcats’ lead to just six points with just 3:52 left.

Arizona pushed its lead to 12 points on a layup from Cedric Henderson with 51 seconds left in the half but Courtney Ramey fouled Askew behind the 3point line on the other end, and Askew hit all three ensuing free throws with 23 seconds left to cut UA’s lead to single digits entering halftime.

Stuck in Cal’s slower pace for the first four minutes, and missing two early 3pointers, the Wildcats were tied 6-6 with Cal before Tubelis powered them on a 14-4 run over the next six minutes.

Tubelis began the run with two free throws and, after Ramey hit a 3-pointer, scored on a fast break feed from Kerr Kriisa and later hit an eight-foot hook shot. In between two inside baskets from Cal center Lars Thiemann, Tubelis then hit a 3 pointer, while later scored two more inside baskets to make it 2410 with 11:24 remaining.

By that point, Tubelis already had 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting while also picking up three rebounds.

Picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12 this season in the conference’s official preseason poll, the Bears have also been bogged down by a rash of health issues. However, they received one of their rotation players back Sunday, forward Sam Alajiki, who had been out because of a concussion.