PHOENIX -- For 20 minutes, the Arizona Wildcats were having the same kind of discomfort at their second home that they might have felt a year earlier.
Before going on to a 68-45 win over San Diego State at what is now called Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, the Wildcats were stymied in a defensive struggle that they had in the same building against UCLA a year ago.
UA shot just 36.0% from the field, making just one of 10 3-pointers, and coughed up 10 turnovers that led to nine Aztec points at halftime. The Wildcats took a one-point halftime lead thanks in part to a technical foul on SDSU coach Brian Dutcher.
Almost exactly a year earlier, in the first half of their 57-54 loss to UCLA at what was then PHX Arena, Arizona was 1 for 13 from 3-point range and committed 13 turnovers that led to 16 UCLA points while the Bruins took a 30-28 halftime lead.
The difference this time was that the top-rated Wildcats also played suffocating defense and had centers Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas once again dominating the glass.
Awaka had 15 rebounds off the bench and starting center Motiejus Krivas had 13 rebounds to muscle Arizona out of a defensive struggle.
The Wildcats still wound up shooting a season-low 37.9% from the field but held SDSU to 26.3% and outrebounded the Aztecs 52-28 thanks in large part to their big men inside, turning a tight 28-27 halftime lead into a comfortable win.
"They wore us out with their physicality and their rebounding," SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. "We gave them a half but we didn't give them a game."
Koa Peat and Jaden Bradley each had 11 points to lead UA in scoring while Anthony Dell’Orso, Brayden Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov each added 10 points. Awaka had nine points to go with his 15 rebounds in a typically efficient 22 minutes.
San Diego State guard Elzie Harrington (3) looks to shoot between Arizona forward Koa Peat (10) and center Motiejus Krivas, front right, during the first half Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Phoenix.
Leading by one at halftime and 33-31 four minutes into the second half, the Wildcats went on a 20-5 run to take control the game over the middle of the second half. UA outrebounded SDSU 30-11 in the second half and committed just one turnover, after coughing up 10 in the first half.
"We kind of had to find our rhythm and our flow a little bit," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "I give San Diego State a lot of credit. They came out with a game plan where they were really forcing us to play outside-in. They were really heavy in that first gap. They were going under a lot of our ball screens.
"We really haven't faced that much conviction (in an opposing) defense, so I think it just took a while for our guys to kind of get comfortable in the game."
The technical foul against Dutcher may have helped the Wildcats do so, or at least broke the Aztecs' momentum.
Arizona was trailing 27-22 with 1:49 left in the first half when UA guard Jaden Bradley picked up a foul from the Aztecs' Sean Newman and shot the first of two free throws when Dutcher continued to argue the call and was whistled for a tech.
"Usually to get one, you have to swear or you have to use your arms (and create) antics to show him up," Dutcher said. "I didn't feel like I did a whole lot of any of that, so I just wanted him to tell me why he teed me up. He wouldn't even tell me that. He was off it at that point. He didn't want to talk to me."
After the game, Dutcher began his media conference by noting jokingly that "I'm glad I didn't get a second technical so I could be here to talk to you tonight...I haven't gotten one in a while so that was interesting."
After Dutcher's T, UA wing Anthony Dell'Orso then shot two technical free throws, making the first and missing the second, before Bradley stepped back in to hit his second and cut SDSU's lead to 27-25.
Dell'Orso later followed with a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in the first half to give the Arizona Wildcats a 28-27 halftime lead and the Wildcats never trailed in the final 18 minutes of the game.
San Diego State guard Sean Newman Jr., right, drives past Arizona guard Jaden Bradley (0) during the first half Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Phoenix.
The win moved the Wildcats to 11-0 and left them likely to assemble a perfect nonconference record with only home games left against Bethune-Cookman (Monday) and South Dakota State (Dec. 29) before they open Big 12 play on Jan. 3 at Utah.
"It's obviously been a good start but we want to keep pushing," Lloyd said. "We know this is a long season, and we also respect that no one knows how things look in a week or two, so you've just got to keep going at it day by day."
