Arizona guard Dalen Terry greets guard Bennedict Mathurin during a timeout after the Wildcats took the lead over Cal Baptist late in the first half of Saturday’s win.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

When you’re 11-0, adversity only comes in small spurts. But it also doesn’t need long to grab your attention.

Over the first four minutes of Arizona’s 84-60 win over Cal Baptist on Saturday at McKale Center. the Lancers hit the first five 3-pointers they took.

That helped Cal Baptist, a Western Athletic Conference team that is still transitioning to Division I, take an 18-7 lead.

“We’ve just got to start the game the right way,” UA center Christian Koloko said. “We just weren’t doing our job.”

After the game, after Koloko and Oumar Ballo each had double-doubles and led a shot-swatting brigade that blocked 12 CBU shots, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he was half to blame. It was his defensive scheme, he said, that helped to open opportunities — along with a failure to rotate and other issues on the court.

“On one possession we had two traps right in front of our bench, the ball got out and the guy was in the corner … and they made it. Then I think we had another one at the end of a press,” Lloyd said. “Those are half on me and half on the guys, because I want to be aggressive. If you miss those 3s early, you’re not going to run your offense. You miss a corner 3, and there’s probably a good chance we’re running it down at the other end.

“So it’s just trying to set tempo and pace. Sometimes it works and you look great. Sometimes it doesn’t work and you don’t look so great.”

But Lloyd said the Wildcats managed to settle down and control the game plan after those early moments, with Arizona destroying the Lancers in the paint on both ends of the floor.

Arizona guard Dalen Terry, left, and center Oumar Ballo get tangled up as Cal Baptist forward Malik Wade drives past them in the first half.

Koloko had 12 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks while Ballo, who played with Koloko in a twin-towers formation at times, added 10 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high five blocks.

The two 7-footers paced UA in the first half, when the Wildcats blocked 10 Cal Baptist shots, while forward Azuolas Tubelis almost singlehandedly helped UA take a comfortable lead early in the second half by scoring 10 points over the first four minutes after halftime. He hit all four shots he took from the field while making 2 of 3 free throws during that stretch.

“Azuolas really kind of asserted his dominance early in that second half, which allowed us to break the game open,” Lloyd said.

Three-pointers from Mathurin and Pelle Larsson then helped UA build its lead to 20 points, 61-41, with 12:31 left. Larsson hit a third 3, on just three attempts, with eight minutes left to give UA a 70-49 lead and the Wildcats weren’t challenged after that.

Tubelis finished with 19 points and seven rebounds while blocking two shots.

The Wildcats shot 50.9% from the field while holding Cal Baptist to just 33.3%. The Lancers hit their first five 3-pointers but made just three of their final 22 shots from beyond the arc.

Arizona center Christian Koloko flies in to swat a shot from Cal Baptist guard Elijah Thomas during Saturday's first half.

The Wildcats were playing for a fourth straight game without forward Kim Aiken for unexplained reasons. Aiken has not attended any of the four games he’s missed, though reserve forward Tautvilas Tubelis sat in street clothes during Saturday’s game because of a wrist injury.

In the first half, Mathurin had 11 points while Arizona blocked 10 California Baptist shots en route to a 40-33 halftime lead.

Koloko had four blocks in the half, while Ballo had three and Tubelis had two. Mathurin blocked the other shot while scoring his 11 points on 4 for 6 shooting.

All the blocks helped drop CBU’s first-half shooting percentage to 33.3 after the Lancers hit their first six shots while taking an early 18-7 lead over Arizona. The Lancers had eight offensive rebounds but did not score a single second-chance point off them.

The Wildcats shot 48.4% for the half after missing 10 of their first 14 shots, and outscored the Lancers 20-6 in the paint.

The teams played six minutes toward the end of half within one possession of each other, before Mathurin made a layup and hit a 3 to give the Wildcats a 36-30 lead.

The Lancers jumped out to leads of 13-3 and 18-7 early while hitting their first six shots of the game, five of which came from beyond the 3-point arc. Reed Nottage had two 3s early for CBU and Ty Rowell then hit 3 3s, the last one making it 18-7 heading into the first media timeout at 15:56.

But while the Lancers missed their next five shots after the timeout, the Wildcats’ offense was still sputtering. They made just 4 of 14 shots through the first eight minutes of the game, with Cal Baptist still ahead 22-12.

It wasn’t until Justin Kier gave the Wildcats a spark on the bench midway through the game that UA began behaving normally. Kier hit 1 of 2 free throws, drove inside for a layup and then hit a 3 to cut CBU’s lead to 22-18 while a three-point play from Mathurin and a 3-pointer from Pelle Larsson gave UA a 24-22 lead with nine minutes left in the half.

Saturday’s game was the last one for Arizona at McKale Center until Jan. 13, when the Wildcats are scheduled to host Colorado. Arizona’s game at Tennessee is its final one before a short Christmas break, and then the Wildcats will re-open Pac-12 play at UCLA on Dec. 30.

Whether the Wildcats will reach Los Angeles undefeated may depend on if they can handle longer patches of adversity that could be ahead.

“Obviously we’ve had a really strong start,” Lloyd said. “I’ve played at Tennessee and it’s a monster. It’s a great opportunity for this to go in there and test ourselves.”

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe