Arizona guard Pelle Larsson (3) swings from the rim after jamming home a basket against Oregon State durning the second half in their Pac 12 game at McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz., February 4, 2023.

After stifling Oregon State for the first 20 minutes Saturday, showing no visible signs of a hangover from their big Thursday-night win over Oregon, the Arizona Wildcats no longer needed to play just their top guys.

Having taken a 26-point halftime lead en route to an 84-52 win over the Beavers, starters Azuolas Tubelis and Kerr Kriisa tried to tell Coach Tommy Lloyd that too. Since losing at Oregon on Jan. 14, Lloyd has been relying on a seven-man rotation, keeping everyone else on the bench entirely for three of the previous four games.

β€œZu and Kerr came up to me at halftime and told me they were fine not playing anymore β€” because they wanted their teammates to play, because they’re great teammates,” Lloyd said. β€œI told them, β€˜I don’t want to do that because we need to keep our rhythm and keep growing our team.’

β€œAnd there’s no disrespect in any opponent. Hey, I’m sitting there as a head coach thinking Oregon State could come out on a 10-0 run if we don’t have our stuff together.”

There was no 10-0 OSU run. No. 5 Arizona went ahead by 30 less than four minutes into the second half with its starters and, shortly thereafter, Lloyd began subbing more heavily than he had since the Wildcats clobbered Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13.

Lloyd had turned briefly to freshmen Filip Borovicanin, Dylan Anderson and Henri Veesaar late in the first half and inserted subs heavily after just 10 minutes of the second half.

Tubelis, meanwhile, left the game with 13:40 left and never returned. He collected 19 points and eight rebounds in the 23 minutes he did play, a performance that should preserve his chances of winning Pac-12 Player of the Week after dropping 40 points on Oregon in the Wildcats’ 91-76 win Thursday.

Lloyd said afterward that Tubelis is having an β€œAll-American” type of season and that he’s been as good as any big man in college basketball, except possibly Purdue’s Zach Edey.

He had β€œthe most quiet 19 I’ve ever seen,” Lloyd said. β€œHe’s just playing like a vet. He understands where his opportunities are on the court, and he’s doing a tremendous job.”

Lloyd said Tubelis could have probably played another 10 minutes but that he wanted to play other players at that point. He had that luxury because Arizona forced OSU into a shot-clock violation on its first possession and kept the heat on, leading the entire game, going up by 26 points at halftime and by as many as 37 in the second half.

Basically, the Wildcats didn’t let up after their emotional win over Oregon.

β€œOregon State was on the schedule today, and they had our full attention,” Lloyd said. β€œI thought our guys came out and played well. I didn’t think maybe overall our energy in all stretches was great tonight, but sometimes that happens. To put together an effort like that and be able to play a lot of guys, it was an encouraging sign.”

Arizona guard Kylan Boswell (4) pulls away from Oregon State forward Dzmitry Ryuny (11) as brings the ball up court in the first half of their Pac 12 game at McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz., February 4, 2023.

The Wildcats also were easily able to remain a game behind first-place UCLA in the loss column of the Pac-12 race. The win was Arizona’s sixth straight overall and seventh straight over Oregon State, moving the Wildcats to 21-3, 10-3 in the Pac-12. Oregon State dropped to 9-15, 3-10.

The Wildcats dominated every area of the game. They wound up shooting 46.7% from the field, held OSU to just 35.6% and outrebounded the Beavers 44-26. Arizona also scored 15 second-chance points on 18 offensive rebounds, scored 23 points off 15 OSU turnovers and outscored OSU 34-28 in the paint.

Freshman guard Kylan Boswell, who had eight points, three assists and three steals in 22 minutes, said a β€œpride thing” has been helping fuel Arizona’s defense lately. The Wildcats have kept opponents under 40% shooting in six of their last nine games.

β€œWe’ve all been very good defenders,” Boswell said. β€œIt’s just we weren’t taking it probably as serious as we are now. The biggest difference for us was just making sure we took it more serious.”

While guard Courtney Ramey was Arizona’s second-leading contributor with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists, a total of 12 Wildcats scored and 16 played.

Even some of the ones just outside of the seven-man rotation made quick splashes, too: Wing Adama Bal hit a 3-pointer 34 seconds after going into the game midway through the second half, while big man Veesaar threw down an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Bal with 5:54 to go, giving UA a 73-40 lead.

With three minutes left, Lloyd also put in Tubelis’ twin brother, Tautvilas, to play in front of Tubelis’ mother and friends who had traveled from Lithuania to take in this week’s UA games.

With two minutes left, Lloyd put in walk-ons Matt Lang, Ben Ackerley, Grant Weitman and Jordan Mains. UA used 16 total players.

β€œI wanted to play other guys,” Lloyd said.

Courtney Rameygestures back to up court after nailing a 3from the corner against Oregon State.

In the first half, Azuolas Tubelis had 15 points and eight rebounds while Arizona held Oregon State to just 33.3% shooting and took a 47-21 lead at the break.

Tubelis went scoreless for the first eight minutes but then took off. Guards Pelle Larsson and Ramey each added eight points in the first half.

After Oregon State cut UA’s lead to seven points with 8:47 to go, UA went on a 10-3 run capped by a 3-pointer from Ramey that gave the Wildcats a 33-19 lead four minutes later. They kept building their lead from there.

Boswell wrapped up the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

β€œI knew that was going in,” Boswell said. β€œBut that was pretty crazy.”

Tubelis went down under the basket midway through the half and was examined by athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie but returned to the court.

Oumar Ballo wore bandages around his right wrist and thumb, and another on his right pinky. But when asked if Ballo had a sprain or any issue, Lloyd said he had no idea. Ballo wound up with seven points and six rebounds in 23 minutes.

β€œHe looks fine to me, and he’s having a great season,” Lloyd said.

No. 5 Arizona 84, Oregon St. 52

OREGON STATE (9-15)

Andela 2-4 2-2 6, Bilodeau 2-5 1-3 5, Rataj 2-5 1-2 5, Taylor 1-6 3-5 5, Pope 2-5 6-6 11, Ibekwe 2-5 2-7 6, Akanno 1-6 0-0 2, Ryuny 3-5 0-0 9, Krass 1-2 0-0 3, Wright 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-45 15-25 52.

ARIZONA (21-3)

A.Tubelis 6-10 7-10 19, Ballo 2-3 3-4 7, Kriisa 2-5 0-2 5, Ramey 4-7 1-2 11, Henderson 2-5 0-0 6, Larsson 3-6 4-4 10, Boswell 3-8 0-0 8, Bal 2-4 2-2 8, Borovicanin 1-2 1-2 4, Anderson 1-3 0-0 2, Veesaar 1-1 0-0 2, T.Tubelis 0-3 0-0 0, Ackerley 0-1 0-0 0, Lang 0-0 0-0 0, Mains 0-1 0-0 0, Weitman 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 28-60 18-26 84.

Halftime: Arizona 47-21. 3-Point Goals: Oregon St. 5-15 (Ryuny 3-4, Krass 1-2, Pope 1-2, Bilodeau 0-1, Taylor 0-1, Wright 0-2, Akanno 0-3), Arizona 10-25 (Bal 2-3, Boswell 2-4, Henderson 2-4, Ramey 2-5, Borovicanin 1-1, Kriisa 1-4, Larsson 0-1, T.Tubelis 0-3). Fouled Out: Ryuny. Rebounds: Oregon St. 23 (Ibekwe 7), Arizona 40 (A.Tubelis 8). Assists: Oregon St. 7 (Rataj 2), Arizona 22 (Kriisa 6). Total Fouls: Oregon St. 20, Arizona 20.

The University of Arizona once had a live "Wildcat" mascot; however, the current mascot ─ with a few changes that include wife, Wilma, along the way ─ Wilbur the Wildcat has been a favorite around Tucson for more than 60 years.

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter:

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