Allonzo Trier had 17 points and seven assists in his first home game since his 19-game suspension, helping lead the Arizona Wildcats to a 79-62 win over Washington State at McKale Center.
Lauri Markkanen added 16 points and tied his season-high with 13 rebounds while UA pulled away after the game was tied at 39 early in the second half.
The Wildcats’ defense struggled to put the veteran Cougars away, and they completely blew their initial 10-point lead from the first half. WSU shot 50 percent through the first 14 minutes of the game, before UA picked it up in the final minutes.
A 3-pointer from Trier with 3:06 left gave the Wildcats a 75-67 lead and UA stayed in control from there.
Playing his first home game since he was reinstated from a suspension over a positive PED test, Trier received a standing ovation when he entered at the first media timeout and hit a 3-pointer on his first attempt.
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While Trier and Markkanen led the Wildcats, Dusan Ristic added 13 points and seven rebounds, while Rawle Alkins scored 12 points for UA.
While the Wildcats shot well over 50 percent and outrebounded WSU 27-17, WSU shot 47.8 percent for the game. UA held WSU leading scorer and rebounder Josh Hawkinson largely in check, but Cougar center Conor Clifford had 19 points and five rebounds.
The Wildcats’ defense, having allowed 46.4 percent shooting in the first half, broke down early in the second half. Washington State made 8 of 12 field goals right after halftime to tie the game and then later cut UA’s lead to 56-52. The Cougars were shooting 50 percent overall at that point.
An unguarded 3-pointer from Hawkinson and a transition layup from Ike Iroegbu made it just 56-53 before Arizona went ahead 60-53 at a media timeout with 6:53 left.
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 Ike 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.
WSU's 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 Ristic each had six points.
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, Sean Miller’s first as UA’s head coach.
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
