On his way out of McKale Center this week, Nico Mannion reminded everyone why, despite what his critics might think, he is a projected first round NBA pick.

The freshman point guard led the Wildcats to an 83-62 win over Washington State at McKale Center by scoring 23 points and dishing seven assists to one turnover while engineering the Wildcats’ game-changing 26-0 run early in the second half.

Zeke Nnaji, another projected first rounder next June, had 21 points on 9-for-14 shooting with seven rebounds, singlehandedly keeping the Wildcats alive with 14 points in the first half before their second-half revival.

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The win moved Arizona to 20-10 and 10-7 in the Pac-12, keeping their hopes of a first-round Pac-12 Tournament bye alive, while WSU dropped to 15-15 and 6-11.

UA will host Washington on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both teams; the last-place Huskies upset ASU 90-83 in Tempe earlier Thursday.

Mannion hit floaters, layups and 3-pointers while also putting on a show with his ballhandling: Among other assists, he raced inside to flip the ball to Nnaji for one second-half score while firing a bullet in from the wing to Christian Koloko for a late dunk.

"Nico was terrific," UA coach Sean Miller said. "I think that's back-to-back games where he's really running our team, making shots, playing with a lot of confidence. I really hope that that continues, both for him and for our team."

Although the Wildcats trailed 31-29 after a relatively lifeless first half, then gave up a 3-pointer to WSU standout CJ Elleby 11 seconds into the second half, Mannion helped them surge to life afterward.

Mannion hit two floaters and a layup to score the first six points of their 26-0 run, which eventually gave the Wildcats a 58-38 lead when Stone Gettings scored inside with 11:53 left.

Gettings had six points during the run while Mannion had nine. The Wildcats fed their run by scoring 11 points total off seven WSU turnovers, while the Cougars also missed all seven shots they managed to take.

"I'd say we had we had energy," Mannion said. "We just got a couple steals, Stone got a big dunk. Zeke had a dunk late in the second half. Plays like that, when we're turning defense into offense, it kind of fuels us."

For at least 12 minutes or so in the second half, it was the Wildcats at their best: Taking advantage of turnovers to get out in transition, Mannion pushing the ball and making shots, everyone getting the ball inside to Nnaji and other scorers pitching in from everywhere else on the floor.

Miller didn't hesitate when asked if those moments were the Wildcats at their best this year.

Arizona forward Zeke Nnaji (22) gets tangled up with Washington State forward Tony Miller (32) in the first half of their Pac12 game at McKale Center, March 5, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

"Yeah, I mean 26-0 was our run and it had both good offense and good defense," Miller said. "AΒ lot of a lot of our good offense begins with our ability to to play really solid defense and make hard plays on the ball, be tough, be disciplined. That leads to transition opportunities and our team, when we get out in transition, a lot of great things have happened for us all year."

Arizona wound up shooting 57.1% in the second half to finish with 47.1% overall shooting, and hitting 9 of 18 3-pointers. The Wildcats totaled 23 points off 17 Cougar turnovers.

In the first half, Nnaji shot 6 for 9 from the field to score nearly half of the team’s points but all other Arizona players combined for only 25% shooting while UA made just 3 of 10 3-pointers.

The Cougars managed to keep the lead despite getting just six points on 3-for-8 shooting from Elleby. Guard Isaac Bonton led WSU with nine points in the half, shooting just 2 of 10 from the field but hitting all four free throws he took.

Arizona jumped out to an early 9-0 lead, with Nnaji scoring the first six points, but the Cougars then went on an 8-0 run to pull within one. Arizona never led by more than seven the rest of the half and lost the lead with 1:47 left in the half when WSU's Tony Miller hit two free throws.

The Cougars had tied it with 2:34 left in the first half when Bonton hit two free throws. They went ahead 31-27 with 1:34 left when Jervae Robinson stole the ball from Nnaji and raced inside for a layup, while Jemarl Baker made a layup for the final score of the half with 37 seconds left.

Both teams failed to score on their final possessions of the first half, with UA's Nico Mannion taking an inbounds pass with five seconds left, racing up the court and missing a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. Mannion had eight points on 3-for-9 shooting in the first half while dishing three assists.

While the Wildcats returned freshman wing Josh Green to the floor after he missed games at USC and UCLA last week with a sore lower back, they went without guard Max Hazzard and center Chase Jeter.

Hazzard was kept out for the second time in the Wildcats’ past three games for what the school is calling β€œpersonal” issue, and Miller declined to comment on it after the game. A former starter who now rarely plays, Jeter was suspended for two games for an unspecified violation of team rules but Miller said he will be a part of the Wildcats into the Pac-12 Tournament next week.

Green had 11 points and four rebounds while playing 28 minutes.

With 1:16 to go in the game, Miller inserted walk-ons Matt Weyand, Kory Jones and Jordan Mains with the Wildcats leading 82-56. Jones is graduating this spring and is not expected to return despite having a year left to play; Miller did not play forward Jake DesJardins, who is redshirting to preserve a final season of eligibility he may use as a grad transfer elsewhere next season.

Check the photos of Arizona's win over Wazzu here:

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