The Arizona Wildcats gave Kadeem Allen a new nickname Wednesday, but it was fitting for all of them, really.
During UA’s 92-37 destruction of NAU, Allen’s outstretched arm sent a tooth from the Lumberjacks’ Torry Johnson flying along the baseline. Afterward, while Johnson was searching around to find it, refs reviewed the play and called Allen for a foul, while the Wildcats became a little creative.
“The team was making a joke,” Allen said. “They called me ‘Tyson’ a little bit.”
It was a Mike Tyson sort of knockout, to be sure. But the knockout wasn’t just about Johnson’s tooth.
With a victory margin that was the biggest the Wildcats have ever put up under coach Sean Miller, the Wildcats pummeled the overmatched Lumberjacks in almost every phase of the game.
The tooth left Johnson’s mouth just as the Wildcats were finishing up a 33-4 run over the beginning of the second half, carrying them from a 40-24 halftime lead to a blowout victory.
Arizona wound up allowing the second-fewest points ever under Miller – they beat Washington State 60-25 at home during the 2013-14 season – in part by holding the Lumberjacks shot just 21.8 percent from the field.
UA also out-rebounded NAU 49-25, scoring 19 points off 14 offensive rebounds. The Wildcats also helped force 14 NAU turnovers, then turned those into another 15 points. In addition, UA outscored NAU 50-14 in the paint, with Johnson, as you might imagine, unable even to trade his tooth for a basket on the play against Allen.
What’s more: The Wildcats did all this damage in really just about 26 minutes, having trouble putting NAU away early because of a lack of team play offensively and defensive mistakes.
“You can’t ever pick and choose defense,” Miller said. “We’re not going to overwhelm you with depth, shooting. We have a lot of great qualities on offense but to get to where we need to be, we need to be a consistent, hard-playing team.”
NAU struggled offensively throughout the game but no more so than in the beginning of both halves, keeping McKale Center fans on their feet for what might be a record amount of time. Fans stood for a total of 8 minutes 52 seconds, sticking with the McKale tradition of standing until the opposing team scores in each half.
That made things rough even for Pac-12 Networks analysts Matt Muehlebach and Steve Lavin, who had to stand up themselves to see all of the action because the courtside fans next to them were standing.
Mark Tollefsen had 13 and Ryan Anderson 12 points before halftime, helping UA take a 16-point lead even as the Wildcats failed to take a double-digit lead over the Lumberjacks for the first 14 minutes.
The seniors helped bail out a team that may have been derailed in focus early by having a week of finals and an opponent they were supposed to beat easily.
“In my experience, all of us as players and coaches are going through a lot now,” Miller said.
Tollefsen finished with 19 points while Anderson had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Arizona built leads of up to 53 points in the second half before Miller began inserting his walk-ons with 3:27 to go.
The win moved UA to 10-1 entering a game Saturday against UNLV at McKale Center. NAU dropped to 2-7, winless against Division I teams.
The Wildcats shot poorly early and led by single digits over the first 14 minutes until they went on a 9-0 run to go ahead 29-16. But they held NAU to just 25 percent shooting and had a 27-15 rebounding advantage.
The Wildcats had their own shooting troubles, making just 1 of 9 three-pointers and getting a 1-for-5 effort from previously hot shooting Allonzo Trier. But they capitalized on nine offensive rebounds by scoring 13 second-chance points; NAU had four offensive rebounds and no second-chance points.
Arizona kept NAU scoreless for almost five minutes at the start of the game, building a 7-0 run. But all wasn’t well on UA’s side of the ball, either. UA shot just 30 percent through the first 10 minutes, while Miller was whistled for a technical foul.
Miller said afterward he was “probably begging for a call and I deserved” the technical.
The Wildcats played their third straight game without backup forward Elliott Pitts, who is out because of an unspecified issue.
