Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis led the Wildcats in scoring on Saturday and showed few ill effects from an ankle injury suffered last month. Credit Arizona’s medical staff … and a visit from his mom.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

The late nights of treatment in training and hotel rooms over the past two weeks were certainly part of it, but Azuolas Tubelis won’t reveal how that all went down.

“We have some stuff in evenings,” he said. “It’s secret.”

His mother Valentina’s presence, and cooking, were a more obvious help.

Tubelis, who had a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds in UA’s defensive-driven 72-63 win over USC on Saturday, spent the last two weeks not only recovering from a significant ankle sprain suffered on Jan. 20 at Stanford but also hanging out with mom, who made her first trip to Tucson since Azuolas and twin brother Tautvilas came to play for the Wildcats in August 2020.

“We spent a lot of time together,” Azuolas Tubeis said. “She stayed at our apartment. We have some space so we were with her all the time.”

While she was there, Tubelis’ mom not only cooked for the twins, but the UA staff as well.

That helped, too.

“I’ve had a lot of Lithuanian food and it’s really good. I haven’t tasted (hers), but Brigger is our food tester,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, referring to equipment manager Brian Brigger. “He told me it was great.”

So whether it was food, or technology, something worked pretty well. Tubelis wound up with his fourth career double-double and first of this season just 16 days after suffering what was supposed to be a three or four week injury.

His teammates took care of the rest, limiting USC to just 34.3% shooting while holding the Trojans off in what was a one-possession game much of the afternoon at McKale Center.

Tubelis finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, his most productive outing since spraining his ankle on Jan. 20 at Stanford. Kerr Kriisa added 13 points on 4 for 7 3-point shooting while Dalen Terry had nine points, four rebounds and four assists.

Isaiah Mobley led USC with 15 points and seven rebounds but had to take 14 shots to get there against a UA defense that kept getting stiffer, gradually shaking off any aftereffects of its emotional 76-66 win over UCLA less than 48 hours earlier.

“I feel like in the beginning we were kind of soft, the whole team and me, too,” Kriisa said. “Our offense basically starts from the defense. So we’ve got to get stops and we’ve got to get our spark. Defense is really important for us.”

Certainly, in this game it was. The Wildcats again didn’t roll over USC the way they did so many teams earlier this season with fast-paced, ball-sharing offense as much as grinding it out at times.

Most of Saturday’s game was played within one possession, and the Wildcats led 64-62 entering the final four minutes, having given up 5 of 10 USC 3-pointers in the first 16 minutes of the second half, but went ahead 66-62 on a hook shot from Christian Koloko with 2:37 left.

USC’s Chavez Goodwin cut it to 66-63 with 1 of 2 free throws with 1:21 left but he later missed a contested eight-footer in the paint with 45 seconds left, and UA led 67-63 at that point.

After Kriisa picked up a foul, he hit both free throws with 36 seconds left to give UA a 69-63 lead and the Wildcats hung on from there.

Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis celebrates after the Wildcats scored a second-half bucket against USC. Tubelis posted his first double-double of the season in Saturday’s nine-point win over the Trojans.

The win moved UA to 19-2 and 9-1 in the Pac-12, where the Wildcats remain in first place at the halfway point of their conference season. The Pac-12 still has yet to reschedule UA’s postponed Jan. 2 game at USC (19-4, 9-4).

UA wound up shooting 47.3% from the field, but held USC under 35% in both halves. The Trojans shot 34.3% overall and made just 7 for 30 3-pointers, staying in the game in part because they took 15 more shots than Arizona did. Arizona outrebounded USC 42-37 overall but the Trojans collected 18 of their 46 missed shots, scoring nine second-chance points.

“I think we can win a lot of ways,” Lloyd said. “We’re a great defensive team. … certain nights you’re explosive on offense but obviously that’s gonna be tough to do that every single day. But we’re more than comfortable being in games like that. We’ll run opportunistically and we’re gonna keep pushing the pace.”

So Arizona squeezed in efficient offense whenever it could.

Earlier in the second half, after Kriisa hit a 3-pointer, USC went on a defensive-fueled run to take a 59-54 lead and prompt a UA timeout with 6:58 left in the game. Boogie Ellis began the run with a 3-pointer in the left corner while Drew Peterson hit two free throws and later hit an off-balance 12-footer to move USC to 57-54.

USC’s Max Agbonkpolo then blocked UA’s Bennedict Mathurin and the Trojans later converted a 6-footer from Goodwin to take the 59-54 lead.

But the Wildcats quickly tied it again at 60 after the timeout, getting a three-point play from Tubelis, who scored inside off a dish from Terry and drew a foul, while Koloko’s block of Goodwin led to a 3 from Kriisa with 5:54 left.

Leading just 29-28 at halftime, Arizona went ahead 39-33 four minutes into the second half after Mathurin made two straight layups, one backhanded as he drove to the left of the basket.

At the end of the first half, USC guard Ethan Anderson hit a jumper just before the buzzer to pull the Trojans within a point of Arizona, 29-28, at halftime.

But at that point, Tubelis already had eight points and three rebounds, on track for what would be his best game since spraining his ankle.

He just wanted to make sure everybody knew it wasn’t all about him.

“Oh yeah. I forgot to say something,” Tubelis said, when asked if it was the best he’s felt since the injury. “I want to say thank you to (the) Arizona staff for bringing my mom here, my coach here and two more Lithuanians. It felt awesome. I’m really happy that she saw how I practiced, how my team looks.

“Yeah. Thank you. And I feel good.”

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