Having already shown this season why they don't take a whole lot of 3-pointers, the Arizona Wildcats did it again Wednesday.
Making just 3 of 13 3-pointers during a 77-51 win over Cincinnati at McKale Center, the Wildcats instead outscored Cincinnati 48-14 in the paint and outrebounded them 46-33.
"We were not happy with that," Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said. "They did a great job of scoring off the drive and the pick and roll -- and the seal with the duck-in got us for some really easy ones. Their offensive rebounding got us for some easy ones."
Arizona's dominance inside served to deemphasize the fact that Arizona was just 2 of 12 from 3-point range until Dwayne Aristode hit a long-range shot when the game was out of contention with 39 seconds left.Β
"Do I want to go 3 for 13 every day? No, but I'm not going to get hung up on it because I thought we had a few good looks today," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. "But to get 28 free throws and 48 points in the paint? Man, that's a heavy load to play against."
Miller said it also "kind of felt like we were in foul trouble the whole night," which refers to another area the Wildcats dominated: UA took double the amount of free throws, hitting 20 of 28 free throws while Cincinnati was 13 of 14.
Not surprisingly, UA center Motiejus Krivas had a lot to do with all of that, collecting 17 points and nine rebounds while forward Koa Peat added 13 points and six rebounds.
Guard Brayden Burries also posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, the second time this season the 6-4 guard has pulled down double-digit rebounds after he had 11 at Utah on Jan. 3.
So while Arizona shot only 42.6% overall, the Wildcats grabbed 18 offensive rebounds that helped make up for it, leading to 18 second-chance points.
On the other end of the court, the Wildcats held Cincinnati to 30.9% shooting and scored 17 points off 14 Cincinnati turnovers. UA now ranks third nationally in defensive efficiency.
"You've got to be relentless," Lloyd said. "If you meet a little resistance and you can't push through it, well, you're probably not going to be a good team."
Although they led for over 36 minutes, the Wildcats ran into trouble off and one through the first 32 minutes of the game.
After missing 10 straight field goals in the first half while Cincinnati took leads of up to four points, Arizona took a six-point lead at halftime. Then the Bearcats cut their lead to just two points on three occasions early in the second half, the last after Jalen Celestine hit a 3-point shot and Baba Miller made two free throws nearly six minutes into the second half.
But Arizona scored eight straight points from there, including two offensive rebound baskets from Tobe Awaka, and the Wildcats built a comfortable lead from that point, while three Cincinnati players wound up with four fouls each.
"They put us in foul trouble," Miller said. "You can go look at the first four minutes of the second half. It felt like it was just `foul, foul, foul, foul, foul.' We got our whole team in foul trouble, and that makes it difficult to play. We have to play physically, and we needed to play very physical defensively to to do our job against this team. The foul trouble certainly affected our ability to do that."
Arizona also managed to turn a no-call into a flagrant call against Cincinnati's Β Miller via an appeal. During a Cincinnati timeout after the play, Lloyd asked officials to see if Miller committed a flagrant foul. Replays appeared to show Miller grabbing Krivas and pulling him toward the ground, a view officials appeared to agree with, giving Krivas a chance to hit two free throws that put UA ahead 60-46.
The Wildcats continued on what became a 15-2 run that put them ahead 67-46 when Ivan Kharchenkov hit a layup with 3:34 to go.Β
In the first half, Arizona shot just 36.7% but took a 33-27 halftime lead. The Wildcats were 11 for 30 from the field, hitting just 1 of 7 3-pointers, while Cincinnati shot 37.0%. Dell'Orso and Kharchenkov both went 0-for-2 from beyond the arc, and Dell'Orso wound up going without a 3-pointer for the fifth time in UA's past six games.
The Bearcats kept it close in the first half in part because reserve Shon Abaev hit 2 of 3 3-pointers and hit all three free throws he took when Tobe Awaka fouled him on another 3-point attempt.
The Wildcats jumped on the Bearcats early, taking a 10-4 lead with four inside baskets and a pair of free throws from Jaden Bradley, prompting Miller to call a 30-second timeout.
But Cincinnati, entering the game with the seventh-best defensive efficiency in Division I, clamped down defensively while pulling to within 15-13 on a 3-pointer from Abaev heading into a timeout with 11:32 left.
With Arizona then entering a string of 10 straight missed shots, Cincinnati took a 20-16 lead midway through the half after Abaev hit his three free throws, then hit his second 3.
But Krivas hit a jumper and made a layup to tie the game at 20 with eight minutes left and it remained within two possessions for the rest of the half.
Former Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa appeared for only a minute late in the first half after sitting out Cincinnati's last four games with a separated shoulder. Miller indicated he was cautious because Kriisa hadn't been through contact drills.
Tuesday "was the first time he's touched a basketball. He hasn't done an individual workout," Miller said. "I know how bad he wanted to play tonight, but I've got to think about the big picture, too. We I need him for the long haul, and if he can put a couple more days together, I think he can continue to get back into our rotation. Obviously, he's a very important piece to this team.
UA honored Kriisa with a brief pregame video on the scoreboard, saying "Thank you, Kerr Kriisa," and Lloyd expressed thanks afterward.
"Kerr's a really good player, and I really appreciate what he brought to our program when he was here," Lloyd said. "He was a critical piece. He was somebody that I didn't recruit, that we were able to kind of re-recruit and get him to stay here and, and he was a really good point guard in our system.
"I mean, he got us playing north-south, he got us playing east-west in the half court and he was a good shooter. He's kind of a big moment guy. I don't think we get off to the foundational build we did, if we didn't have Kerr, so I'll always appreciate what he brought to the table for us."
Former Wildcat and current Bearcat Kerr Kriisa gets a few early rounds of long range jumpers in as the Cincinnati guard returns to face Arizona for a Big 12 game, Jan. 21, 2026, at McKale Center.
The win moved top-ranked Arizona to 19-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big 12 heading into a home game Saturday against West Virginia at McKale Center on Saturday at noon, while Cincinnati dropped to 10-9 and 2-4. West Virginia improved to 13-6 and 4-2 after winning 75-63 at ASU earlier Wednesday.
The game was attended by several Arizona athletic notables, including Falcons running back Bijan Robinson, Reds manager Terry Francona, Diamondbacks pitcher Kevin Ginkel, former UA quarterback Kahlil Tate and former UA assistant coach Steve Robinson.
