LOS ANGELES — When Parker Jackson-Cartwright took a seat on the long Arizona bench before tipoff Saturday, next to fellow inactives Allonzo Trier, Ray Smith and Talbott Denny, the Wildcats’ margin of error shrunk to almost zero.
Then, about four minutes later, it was zero.
In their 69-62 loss Saturday to Gonzaga at Staples Center, the Wildcats couldn’t initially stop the Zags’ three-point shooting and couldn’t outmuscle Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski, who led all scorers with 18 points on 9-for-13 shooting.
And, without Jackson-Cartwright, UA couldn’t find any sort of rhythm offensively.
After 4 minutes and 23 seconds, the Zags led 17-5. Arizona had four turnovers and had allowed three 3-pointers in that short span and never really recovered, despite a late rally that pulled the game within two possessions in the final minutes.
“At the start of the game, (Gonzaga) was a very confident group of guys, coming off a (AdvoCare Invitational) championship, with guys who really felt good about who they are,” Miller said. “Whereas on our end, we were really unsure.”
That was all you really needed to know about Saturday’s outcome. The rest of what Miller and his guys looked for was hope.
They saw a little bit of it in the way the rest of the first half played out, with UA trailing no worse (12 points) at halftime. And a little more in the second half, when they outscored Gonzaga by five thanks to better defense and some gutsy offensive play by guard Rawle Alkins.
Miller said he was pleased with the Wildcats’ resiliency and effort after those initial minutes, thankful that Kadeem Allen and Lauri Markkanen keep putting out extraordinary effort while playing three positions each, happy that Alkins kept going at it when the game could have completely fallen apart.
Those were intangibles a coach could point to. The stats weren’t so understanding.
Arizona shot just 38.6 percent from the field, missing 7 of 8 three-pointers it took, thanks to uncharacteristically poor shooting efforts from Markkanen (4 of 14) and Kobi Simmons (1 for 9).
Perhaps for Markkanen, such a result was overdue. He had been an amazingly efficient shooter all season, entering the game with a 45.9 percent mark from 3-point range.
Basically, he was so good that people were taking notice. And when you have an unbeaten No. 8-ranked team, full of veteran players and a well-regarded coach, guess what?
“Obviously, they defended me a little bit differently than other previous teams, but it’s just the shots didn’t go in today,” Markkanen said. “I’m still very confident in my shot.”
He had a point. Markkanen missed some open looks that he routinely nailed down during the Wildcats’ first seven games, but he also had to deal with a defense that was probably more tuned in to him than any other he’s seen so far.
In other words, Gonzaga paid him a compliment, the kind of compliment that isn’t fun to receive.
“He is a fabulous player,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “He presents a lot of problems being 7 feet tall and Sean’s done a great job of putting him in a lot of different actions.
“I thought our guys did a good job of assimilating all the different places on the floor where he was going to be. We switched our ball-screen coverages and shaded our zone to him.”
While Markkanen put in another 38 minutes, having to play again often at small forward since the Wildcats have only three natural players for the three perimeter positions, Alkins logged 37 minutes, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the second half to help the Wildcats make a game of it.
Most of Alkins’ scoring came off rebounding or other hustle plays; five of his seven rebounds were offensive.
“My coaches and my teammates gave me confidence. They wanted me to be aggressive,” Alkins said. “They stress that a lot with me. I was talking to (Miller) the other day and he was telling me to just play basketball, play my game. He thought in the first few games I was being a little timid and unsure of myself and not knowing what to do.
“I was just playing hard on both ends of the floor. (Frontline players) we’re supposed to rebound every second on offense. So the shot goes up and my first instinct is to rebound the ball and luckily it just got to my hands.”
Meanwhile, the Wildcats relied on Allen for 35 minutes, with fulltime duty at point guard, where he wasn’t even supposed to play entering this season. Allen collected 10 points and four rebounds, with five turnovers to his three assists, and he fouled out with 28 seconds left, just after a two-possession game had bumped back up to three.
The central question Saturday was how many of the UA’s struggles were due to its avalanche of absences. In a perfect world for the Wildcats, Jackson-Cartwright would have played 30 minutes at the point, while Trier might have created some offense to put them in position to win, as he did last season in Spokane.
But Jackson-Cartwright was out with a high ankle sprain suffered Wednesday against Texas Southern and Trier, well, you know that story: eight games now, gone, because of his ongoing NCAA eligibility issue.
Miller can only hope the experience of games like Saturday’s, the extra minutes, the learning new positions, can help guys like Markkanen, Alkins and even forward Keanu Pinder — who was forced to defend small forwards for the first time this year — later this season.
“We have our fingers crossed that we can get some good health, and maybe get a couple of these guys back,” Miller said, “and if we can do that, we may hit our stride in January and February in a way that maybe we couldn’t.”
Miller then paused briefly.
“And here’s the other point,” he said, “that’s the only positive way I can look at it.”
