Distractions, slumps at UCF can't veer streaking Arizona basketball off course

ORLANDO, Fla. — With only a clear-glass backboard, a seated ESPN cameraman and a few cheerleader pom-poms in the way, Jaden Bradley could hardly avoid the distractions.

Swaying palm fronds, and other various objects, waved frantically in front of him from a rowdy UCF student section behind the basket that had never before seen a No. 1-ranked team play at Addition Financial Arena.

“I try to zone them out, but sometimes it’s hard,” Bradley said. “They got all kinds of crazy posters and stuff.”

Ten times Bradley stepped up to the line to face all of it over the final 77 seconds of Arizona’s 84-77 win over UCF on Saturday, and the first nine free throws all went in.

Game over, unbeaten season preserved, upset avoided. Problem solved.

Like everything else.

Once again, during their march toward their best-ever season start in over a decade, the Wildcats figured out a way to win.

Didn’t ultimately matter that Bradley had to face all that pressure at the line, as he did while calmly hitting 8-of-8 free throws against a similarly active BYU student crowd a year earlier in the Wildcats’ 85-74 win at Provo.

Didn’t ultimately matter that freshman forward Koa Peat, the star of the Wildcats’ 89-82 win over his hometown ASU team three days earlier, bowed to early foul trouble and was never much of a factor.

Didn’t ultimately matter that wing Anthony Dell’Orso, a normally reliable piece of 3-point shooting when the Wildcats need it, missed all six shots he took, including three from long range.

And it didn’t matter that the palm fronds waved throughout the second half, for a time actually looking like they might pose a threat to the Wildcats and their perfect record.

Up by 15 in the second half, Arizona led by only two, 51-49, when Tobe Awaka missed two free throws in front of the UCF students.

And, after UA took leads of up to 13 later in the second half, the Wildcats led by only six with 38 seconds left, when Peat missed two free throws he took, and UCF’s Chris Johnson hit a 3-pointer at the other end.

The Wildcats wound up hitting only 14 of 21 (66.7%) free throws in the second half against the palm fronds after making 9 of 12 against the mellower backdrop of a bar area behind the other baseline in the first half.

“Their fans do a a great job of trying to distract us,” Bradley said. “But it’s something that we try to work on. On the road, the game can be decided off a miss or made free throw.”

But maybe it wasn’t just the distractions. Maybe Awaka and Peat were just having a rough time of it in general.

After he had 24 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday in UA's 89-82 win over ASU, Peat picked up two fouls over the first nine minutes of Saturday’s game and played only four before halftime. He finished with just four points and three rebounds in 19 minutes, the two free throws just a piece of a frustrating outing.

Awaka’s evening, meanwhile, became a lot more grueling thanks to Peat. He played 15 minutes in the first half, many of them along with center Motiejus Krivas, and a season-high 27 minutes overall. Awaka fouled out with 57 seconds to go.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“I feel really comfortable rotating those three bigs in there, and (Krivas and Awaka) probably had to play a little bit longer stretches in the first half than they’re normally accustomed to,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Maybe they wore down a little bit. But on the road, it takes what it takes. You don't get to script these games.”

Krivas also wound up playing a season-high minutes, 30, but shrugged it off somewhat.

Three guys, two spots. There’s some wiggle room there if trouble happens.

“I feel like it's hard to for teams to guard us,” Krivas said. “It's not like when one of us three goes (out) the energy or basketball drops. It's always getting higher.”

The same might also be said for the UA perimeter: In a game when Dell’Orso’s shot wasn’t working out, freshman guard Brayden Burries had 18 points on 8 for 14 shooting, spreading offense throughout the game, often when the Wildcats needed it most.

Among other shots, Burries drove in for a layup after UCF cut the Wildcats’ lead to four points with just over 15 minutes left, a jumper right after Dell’Orso missed a 3 with eight minutes left and a 3-pointer with four minutes left just as two free throws from UCF’s Devan Cambridge cut UA’s lead to single digits.

“He had a couple timely shots in the second half,” Lloyd said. “I felt like he kind of gave us enough cushion to ride out the craziness of the last couple minutes.”

After the game, Lloyd called Burries “a basketball junkie from a basketball family” and suggested there was something else intangible going on, too.

“Some kids just have it,” he said. “They have that poise and that presence.”

At this point of the season, at 18-0 and with the now-undisputably best resume in college basketball, maybe the same thing can be said about the rest of Lloyd's team.

Lloyd said it was a credit to his team that it was able to absorb the problems Peat and Dell’Orso faced, though he said Dell’Orso actuially played a good floor game and just missed some open shots, and that Peat will prove resilient.

“Koa is such a high character guy. He understands this is a team game,” Lloyd said. “He’s going to be great one day and he might not be the next. But he'll bounce back for sure.”

The numbers are simple: Eight guys have played in Arizona's rotation all season. Two were in trouble Saturday. Five scored in double figures to help make up for it.

And, together, they picked up their 18th win. 

In 18 games. 

“It's a group that has a winning DNA in it, and that's something you don't take for granted,” Lloyd said. “I’m not going to sit here and take all the credit for it. We try to do our best job building a good, strong culture. That gives us a kind of a foundation to be consistent. That's what I'm looking for.”