Koa Peat, Tobe Awaka lead Arizona Wildcats to tense 89-82 win over ASU

In a tense in-state rivalry game Wednesday at McKale Center, maybe it was no surprise that a Gilbert native made the difference for Arizona.

Freshman forward Koa Peat had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats against his home-area school, while senior center Tobe Awaka poured in 25 points to also help lead Arizona to a 89-82 win over ASU.

"Super exciting to play a rivalry game like that," Peat said. "There's a lot of history behind it."

Peat scoured his 24 points by hitting 9 of 15 two-point shots, often slicing and forcing his way toward the basket, and making 6 of 8 free throws after drawing fouls. 

While Peat was just 2 for 8 in the first half, he hit all seven shots he took after halftime.

"Obviously, Koa understands what this game means maybe more than other guys, so he had to adjust to it a little bit. I'm sure he really, really wanted to play well today," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. 

"One of the things we talk about a lot in our program is the undisciplined want of more. Maybe early in the game, he was a little too aggressive and got sped up a little bit in an effort to help our team. Maybe he was a little bit undisciplined with it. He really reeled that in in the second half."

In a game that was mostly played within a possession in the first half, the Wildcats led by up to 12 in the second half when they hit 11 straight field goals. ASU pulled close in the final minutes thanks in part to two 3s from wing Noah Meeusen but never cut UA's lead under three points in the final minutes. 

ASU guard Moe Odum had a chance to cut UA’s lead to two points with 54 seconds left when he hit a 3-pointer and drew a foul, but he missed an ensuing free throw.

On UA's next possession, a 12-foot jumper from Jaden Bradley with 27 seconds left put UA up by five and Awaka hit two free throws with 19 seconds left to make the final score. 

Odum led ASU with 23 points, having scored 18 in the second half after he shot just 2 of 10 in the first half.

"In a place like this, and I've been there as a player, tostruggle in the first half shooting it, he just kept competing," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. "And then the second half, he was like a different guy... put us on our back to kind of stay in the game at different moments. That's what real leaders do, guys that have got guts."

While Odum excelled in the second half, center Massamba Diop had 11 points and six rebounds before halftime to help ASU take a 39-38 halftime lead.

Arizona had only trailed at halftime once previously this season, when it came back from a 41-39 Alabama lead at half to beat the Crimson Tide 96-75 on Dec. 13. The Wildcats also struggled in the first half against San Diego State on Dec. 20 in Phoenix, leading just 28-27 at halftime, but went on to win that one 68-45.

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Another way to look at it Wednesday: Arizona had trailed for a total of 14 seconds in its previous five games... but trailed for 9:38 on Wednesday. 

Overall, it was the tightest game Arizona has played wire-to-wire since it beat UConn 71-67 on Nov. 19 in Storrs, Conn.

"We don't have hubris. We don't expect these games to come easy," Lloyd said. "I really appreciate the battle tonight. I appreciate the competition, and you know what, I probably would have been OK if we would have lost. I'm really happy we won but ... I learned that our guys are here for it. You put them in tough situations, and they're not afraid to make plays and find a way in a really tough game."

After trailing by a point at halftime, UA went up by up to three points early in the second half. But while ASU also went ahead 53-52 on a jumper from Odum with 15 minutes left, Arizona had begun hitting what became a streak of 11 straight field goals. The first six lifted them first to a 61-54 lead heading into a media timeout with 11:30 left.

The Wildcats went on to make it nine straight field goals heading into the eight-minute timeout, when they led 70-63. UA led 68-62 before ASU guard Bryce Ford drove in for a dunk, though Ford was called for a delay-of-game penalty for the way he tossed the ball afterward.

Ivan Kharchenkov hit the Wildcats’ 10th straight field goal, a 3 from the left wing, to give UA a 73-63 lead and Koa Peat followed with in inside score to give the Wildcats a 75-63 lead

In the first half, Awaka had 15 points to lead Arizona even though the Wildcats wound up trailing by a point. UA led by no more than six points in the first half, while ASU guard Bryce Ford hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Sun Devils a 39-36 lead with 34 seconds left.

Peat's 6-footer cut it to one with nine seconds left before ASU’s Massamba Diop missed a final shot just before the halftime buzzer.

Even though the Sun Devils entered the game at just 10-6, having lost four of their past five games, they pulled top-ranked Arizona into a tight defensive game early.

A sellout and noisy UA crowd rode the Sun Devils and Hurley early and the tension spilled on to the court. When the game was tied at 18 midway through the first half, ASU forward Allen Mukeba fouled UA guard Brayden Burries as he drove to the basket during a play when both of them eventually picked up technical fouls.

Peat fell under the basket during the play and when Mukeba extended his arms in an apparent offer to lift him off the floor, Peat waved him off -- though Peat said after the game he was taking his time getting up because of the hard fall he made.

Meanwhile, Burries contacted Mukeba, with both players given offsetting technical fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Just over a minute later, with ASU still having not shot any free throws to that point, Hurley appealed to officials to see if UA center Motiejus Krivas committed a flagrant foul during a tangle with ASU’s Santiago Trouet, but officials ruled no flagrant was committed.

The win moved Arizona to 17-0 overall and 4-0 in the Big 12 while ASU dropped to 10-7 and 1-3. The state's two Big 12 teams will meet again on Jan. 31 in Tempe.

Photos: Arizona Wildcats scratch their way to 89-82 win over arch rival Arizona State