Brad Cesmat
Arizona ran UCLA off the Vegas strip Friday night. The Wildcats would lead by six at halftime, and cruise to a 86-75 win over the Bruins. With the victory, the Wildcats will meet Oregon in the Pac-12 Title game Saturday night here in Las Vegas.
-Lauri Markkanen was a force on both ends of the floor for Arizona. His shooting slump beyond the 3pt. arc in the second half of the Conference season appears to be behind him. He scored a game high 29 on 22 shots. Hitting on 4 of 10 3’s. If he shoots like this over the next three weeks, Arizona WILL be playing in Glendale. No one can stop the one-two punch of the Wildcat guards and a “Big” like Markkanen hanging around away from the basket dropping dimes.
-Arizona used dribble penetration by Kadeem Allen, Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins to challenge the Bruins. The Wildcats looked like the tougher team from the get-go.
-Lonzo Ball was not much of a factor. He picked up two first half fouls and didn’t have the same bounce in his step that I’ve seen this season(or was it just really good defense on him by Arizona?) Ball finished 2-7 shooting and scored 8.
-Too bad the Arizona schools won’t travel to UCLA and USC for the 2018 basketball season. As part of the rotating schedule we won’t see the Wildcats at Pauley Pavillion. Now that both coaches have burned a timeout with 1 second remaining and the game already won, we can move on to playing the game for a full 40 mins. without end of the game shenanigans like we’ve seen the last two times they’ve schools have met.
-Dave Heeke, the new Athletic Director for Arizona isn’t here in Las Vegas taking in the Wildcats run. He doesn’t officially start his new position until April.
