Arizona hit the midway point of its season Thursday, yet some things looked brand new.
First, there was the competition. After playing a soft nonconference home schedule, the Wildcats ran head-first into a stiffer Pac-12 opponent, beating Utah 66-56 after some early rough moments on both ends of the McKale Center floor.
Then there was new and improved center Dusan Ristic, who continued his torrid offensive efficiency of late by tying his season-high of 18 points with 7-for-10 shooting. The Serbian 7-footer scored 16 points against both Cal and Stanford and is now shooting 73.3 percent in Pac-12 games.
Arizona also showed off its rehabilitated point guard, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who dished nine assists to zero turnovers in just his third game back from a high ankle sprain.
In addition, there’s a defense that grew up fearful of foul trouble — and has learned to play with it. Although Arizona allowed the Utes to shoot 52 percent in the first half, it held Utah to just 36.4 percent in the second half while committing only eight personal fouls.
“I would say our defense was like Jekyll and Hyde,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “But our ability to play defense without fouling developed because of our lack of depth.”
Whether or not the Wildcats get the final piece back to all that newness — suspended guard Allonzo Trier — remains unknown. It is commonly speculated that he might return Saturday against Colorado, since that’s the first game past the 50 percent mark of the season.
Arizona is scheduled to play 31 regular-season games plus the Pac-12 Tournament (which is technically part of the regular season, and usually counted as one game for scheduling purposes).
In any case, UA continued its no-comment policy about all things Trier. But Miller still spent 13 minutes after the game talking about good signs, including signs of growth from all that early season adversity that is starting to appear now.
Signs that may be appearing at the right time.
“I hope so,” Miller said. “The down-the-road isn’t as far as it once was. We’re in conference play so we have to be ready to go. Here in 48 hours, four of our 18 (conference) games are over with. So we have to improve now. We have to be ready now.
“No doubt conference play is different, especially if you’re a freshman. And each team has a different style. There’s amazing familiarity between coaches in the conference, so from a players’ perspective the details of what we do are really important.”
As it turned out, the Wildcats’ veterans mostly led the way Thursday, with some significant rebounding help from freshmen Lauri Markkanen (nine) and Rawle Alkins (eight) that helped Arizona out-rebound Utah 38-27.
Utah had only four offensive rebounds and just two second-chance points, cutting off yet another source of offense along with their inability to get to the free-throw line.
Ristic chipped in eight rebounds toward that effort, noting afterward that the Wildcats were well aware of the Utes’ plus-10.1 rebounding margin entering the game.
“That was a big thing,” Ristic said.
Meanwhile, Jackson-Cartwright fed Ristic and the rest of the team often. His assist total was nine, but Miller swore it had to have been somewhere in double digits.
“If you have zero turnovers and 10 assists, a big reason why your team is going to win is because of you,” Miller said. “His impact tonight was extraordinary.”
And, while Jackson-Cartwright said residual pain in his ankle is still affecting his shot, he added a buzzer-beating 18-foot runner just before halftime to give Arizona a 35-27 lead.
On that one, there simply wasn’t any time to feel pain. Instincts took over, and PJC launched one from just inside the top of the key.
“Time was running out, so I ran down the open floor, looked at the clock, and let it go,” Jackson-Cartwright said.
The win moved 17th-ranked Arizona to 14-2 overall and 3-0 in the Pac-12 entering a game Saturday with Colorado at McKale Center.
The Utes dropped to 10-4 and 1-1, but left after making it tough for the Wildcats early and even during stretches of the second half.
Up by eight at halftime, Arizona built leads of up to 13 points early in the second half before Utah tightened it up. Utah pulled within four, 48-44, after Utah’s David Collette made a three-point play and Sedrick Barefield threw in a layup high off the glass. Things got even tighter with six minutes left, and Collette drew a foul from Markkanen under the basket, then came back for a basket that tightened UA’s lead to 51-48 — and prompted Miller to call a timeout.
But Collette picked up his fourth foul shortly afterward and the Wildcats went back ahead 58-50 in his absence with 3:35 left, thanks in part to a corner 3-pointer by Alkins. The Utes never cut it to within two baskets the rest of the way.
During that period, the other major change surfaced: The McKale Center crowd, having sat through a mostly uneventful nonconference home schedule, was on its feet for much of the second half and louder than it has been all season.
It was conference play, a new season, especially new for Arizona.
Miller noted how in a lot of places, the lack of students makes crowds feel different, but not at Arizona. The Wildcats were playing in front of a near-sellout of 14,302 fans.
“It’s nice to have our home crowd,” Miller said. “We fed off it, especially in the second half.”
