The Arizona Wildcats had the kind of defense and physicality they needed Wednesday against one of the country’s top scoring guards and his hard-playing Grand Canyon teammates.
Offense was another story, but the Wildcats had enough to hold on for a 64-54 win over DeWayne Russell and Antelopes on Wednesday night at McKale Center.
Arizona turned the ball over a season-high 19 times and hit just 4 of 13 3-pointers, but held off Grand Canyon. The Wildcats shot 42.6 percent from the field while leading scorer Lauri Markkanen struggled to a 3-for-12 shooting effort.
“It was as physical of a game as we’ve been in all year,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “It caught us off guard. I thought our defense was really good. Our turnovers were insane.”
UA, now 9-2 heading into a game Saturday in Houston against Texas A&M, did it by holding the Antelopes to 35 percent shooting and keeping Russell to a hard-earned 19 points.
Russell entered the game with the nation’s second-leading scoring average (25.4) but shot 8 of 21 from the field and made only 1 of 7 3-pointers against the Wildcats. Kadeem Allen was the primary defender on him, while Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins also chipped in.
“It was knowing what he wants to do and limiting him,” Simmons said, “just limiting what he wants to do. We know where he wants to get the ball.”
Offensively, Allen had eight points and six rebounds. Simmons led UA in scoring with 13 points while three players had 11 points: Alkins, Markkanen and Dusan Ristic. Markkanen and Alkins also had eight rebounds each.
UA led by up to 16 points, but Grand Canyon cut it to just four midway through the second half, 44-40, to get the late-night McKale Center crowd on its feet before the Wildcats pulled off a long defensive stand.
On four successive possessions, GCU had: Russell lose the ball due to defensive pressure from Ristic and Simmons, a missed jumper from Fiifi Aidoo, a shot from Russell blocked by Allen en route to a shot-clock violation, and another missed jumper from Aidoo.
At that point, UA was back up 50-40 and the Wildcats went ahead 54-42 with 7:03 left on a pair of free throws by Ristic, then hung on the rest of the way.
Up by seven points at halftime, UA went ahead by 10 points early in the second half before Russell broke free for a pair of field goals inside the three-point arc. Russell banked in a jumper to cut UA’s lead to 40-32 and later returned for a 15-foot pull-up over the defense of Simmons to make it 42-36.
In the first half, Arizona’s defense was more impressive, holding GCU to just 30.3 percent from the field. Allen led the way by scored six points and limiting Russell to 11 points and 1-for-6 3-point shooting while the Wildcats took a 32-25 halftime lead.
Allen scored six points in the first half, while Alkins had seven and Markkanen had four points to go with five rebounds.
UA struggled in the early moments of the game, coughing up three turnovers in the first four minutes while leading only 5-4 at the first media timeout, but the Wildcats went on a 19-3 run to take a 26-12 lead midway through the half.
Defense fueled the Wildcats’ run. On two occasions, Allen blocked three-pointers by Russell, and on the second one, Alkins picked the ball up and raced downcourt for an emphatic dunk to give the Wildcats a 23-12 lead.
Allen then made a splash offensively, coming down on UA’s next possession to hit a three-pointer, putting UA up by 14 with 8:37 left in the half. The Wildcats took leads of up to 16 the rest of the half, though Grand Canyon went on a 9-0 run toward the end of the half to cut it to seven at the halftime buzzer.
A three-pointer by Gerard Martin cut Arizona’s led just 32-22 on a with 2:11 left, prompting UA to call timeout, and three-point play by Darion Clark reduced the lead to seven.
Arizona was playing without Allonzo Trier again, with the sophomore having missed all 11 UA games while battling an NCAA eligibility issue. UA has steadfastly declined to comment on Trier, and all UA news conferences are now prefaced by an announcement that the school will not comment.
