Saying his 19-game suspension was “one of the most difficult things in my life,” Allonzo Trier finally returned to the McKale Center floor for the first time this season Thursday.
But the team that won 17 games without him wasn’t quite there.
The Wildcats, struggling to work Trier in offensively and regressing defensively, hung on to beat Washington State 79-62 in a game that was more troubling for the Wildcats than the score may have indicated.
Although Trier had 17 points and seven assists, and Lauri Markkanen added 16 points and 13 rebounds, the veteran Cougars didn’t really go away until the final minutes.
WSU shot 47 percent from the field, managing to take UA’s 10-point, first- half lead and tie the game early in the second half, at 39, then later cut the Wildcats’ lead to just three points with only 8:43 left.
The Wildcats, now 19-2 overall and 8-0 in the Pac-12, were due for a letdown of sorts after their road sweep of USC and UCLA last weekend, while they are also still working in Trier.
“You can’t just incorporate a player – Allonzo played well – and all of a sudden be hitting on all cylinders,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “There are things we need to improve, adjust, figure out.”
Miller said “tonight felt funny,” since it was really the first time UA had to fully incorporate Trier into the rotation. In Trier’s first game back on Saturday at UCLA, starting wing Rawle Alkins picked up two early fouls and Miller said Trier “almost took his place.”
At first, Trier’s place in the rotation didn’t appear disruptive. He didn’t enter the game until the first media timeout, after four minutes had passed, and UA went with a lineup of four reserves until the second media timeout – and outscored WSU 10-7 over that span.
But until they began to slowly pull away over the final eight minutes, the Wildcats had trouble. WSU shot 50 percent through the first 14 minutes of the game, before UA picked it up in the final minutes. And, while UA managed to contain WSU double-double machine Josh Hawkinson to just nine points and five rebounds, they let unheralded Coug center Conor Clifford collect 19 points and five rebounds.
In addition, the Cougars broke through the UA defense on several occasions for easy baskets, and it looked particularly tough for UA when Hawkinson hit an unguarded 3-pointer and Ike Iroegbu made a transition layup to cut UA’s lead to just 56-53 with under nine minutes left.
“I didn’t feel our transition defense was as good,” Miller said. “That’s to Washington State’s credit, but sometimes that happens when different group of players are in at one time. That’s all part of what I’m talking about, the new faces with new rotations. It’ll work itself out. It’s not a negative, it’s a positive.”
Of course, Trier found it a positive to be back on his home floor after a 19-game ordeal that wasn’t lifted until he tested negative for a PED in his system. In his first interview with local media since Sept. 29, Trier declined to say what his offseason injury was that prompted him to take the drug, or any other detail.
“It’s a great feeling,” Trier said of his return. “I was really excited.”
Trier helped put the game away with a 3-pointer with 3:06 left that gave the Wildcats a 75-67 lead.
In the first half, Arizona shot 53.3 percent from the field but couldn’t expand its lead beyond 10 points.
In all, UA used its newfound depth to field a lineup with four reserve players between the first and second media timeouts, and outscored the Cougars 10-7 during that span.
Arizona then went ahead by up to 10 points but the veteran Cougars kept it from getting out of hand before halftime. WSU pushed it up quickly to feed Hawkinson for a layup under the basket that cut UA’s lead to 32-28 with 2:53 left, while a 3-pointer from Iroegbu made it 34-31 with 1:29 left.
However, Markkanen hit a 3-pointer and Kadeem Allen stole the ball for a layup with 17 seconds left in the half to make the final halftime score.
Clifford had nine points and four rebounds to lead the Cougars in the half. WSU shot 46.4 percent but UA was even better, hitting 53.3 percent and making 6 of 13 (46.2) 3-pointers.
For UA, Markkanen had nine points and six rebounds while Trier, Chance Comanche and Dusan Ristic each had six points in the half.
The win moved UA to 19-2 overall and 8-0 in the Pac-12. The Wildcats will next face Washington on Sunday at McKale Center.
The Cougars dropped to 10-10 and 3-5.
Washington State hasn’t beaten Arizona since it did so twice during the 2009-10 season, Miller’s first as UA’s head coach.
