Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis throws down a dunk over Western Oregon's John Morrill-Keeler following a fast break in Tuesday's exhibition game in McKale Center.

 Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Azuolas Tubelis needed only 33 seconds to jumpstart the fun, grabbing a steal that led to Wildcats’ first basket of their 91-61 exhibition win over Division II Western Oregon on Tuesday at McKale Center.

Then he scored 19 points of his own, dunking three times and recording two steals for a team that scored 31 points off the Wolves’ 24 turnovers.

So, who was going tell β€˜Zu to cool it a bit?

UA coach Tommy Lloyd did, respectfully, that is.

β€œIt was great,” Lloyd said of Tubelis’ defensive aggressiveness. β€œI mean, I think he's got to temper it on defense a little bit. You can't go for a steal every time they pass the ball to your guy. Maybe every other time.Β 

Arizona routed Western Oregon 91-61 in an exhibition game Tuesday night at McKale Center. Six Wildcats scored in double figures.

"I think he's just got to kind of tone that down because there's a beauty in being aggressive and taking the fight to somebody and there's also beauty in understanding that it's OK to be solid at some points as well. We need a good mix of both those things.”

While playing all 12 scholarship players, including freshman guard Kylan Boswell in his debut after offseason surgery to repair a broken foot, the Wildcats had a little bit of everything. Lloyd mixed and matched his rotation, which will be forced to go without guard Courtney Ramey for the first three regular-season games because he competed in an April predraft event that was not NCAA-certified.

The Wildcats didn’t make a splash beyond the 3-point line, hitting just 3 of 17 while point guard Kerr Kriisa missed both his long-range shots, but they did play the sort of aggressive style on both ends of the court that Lloyd prefers.

After allowing Western Oregon to shoot 48.0% in the first half, Arizona also locked down the Wolves to a 31.4% rate in the second half, and generally showed potential to figure it out defensively without their three NBA draftees from last season – Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Christian Koloko and long wings Bennedict Mathurin and Dalen Terry.

β€œWe had some great individual defenders last year but a lot of it was they defended within the team concept,” Lloyd said. β€œWe don't have a defense where they need to make up their own rules. We have a very sound approach to how we defend and you're not going to pitch shutouts in basketball. So I think we just need to kind of clean some things up a little bit.”

It helps the Wildcats that, even without Koloko around, they have Tubelis and 7-footer Oumar Ballo inside, backed up by promising freshmen bigs Henri Veesaar and Dylan Anderson.

β€œI think we can be a lot more aggressive defensively,” wing Cedric Henderson said. β€œI think especially with the size we have inside between Henri, Oumar, Dylan and 'Zu, and our wings are really long too. I think we can press up more and get even more steals and more fast breaks.”

While Tubelis had his 19 points on 9-for-16 shooting, Ballo had a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds while one of those long wings, sophomore Adama Bal, made it to the free throw line 11 times, hitting 10 of 11 free throws and totaling 15 points.

β€œTommy and I have discussed a lot about this," Bal said. "I can be a great shooter but I also need to play physical and aggressive, and that’s what I was trying to do. I’ve worked on it and tried to get better.”

The Wildcats took 21 more free throws overall than Western Oregon and hit 22 of 32 of theirs, scoring 14 more points at the line than the Wolves. Between that and the 31 points off Western Oregon’s turnovers, the Wildcats were able to easily compensate for their 3-for-17 3-point shooting.

Only Ramey (2 for 6) and Bal (1 for 3) hit 3s, while point guard Kerr Kriisa missed all three shots he took, including two 3-pointers. Kriisa was also just 1 for 6 from 3-point range in the Wildcats’ Red Blue Game, but Lloyd indicated no worries about the Estonian junior, who is expected to be one of UA’s key leaders this season.

β€œKerr’s been great,” Lloyd said. β€œKerr and I obviously have a great understanding of what he means to this program, and I think he’s kind of taken a little bit of a wait-and-see attitude, and let others get themselves comfortable.

β€œI think we all know Kerr is two consecutive 3s from being rolling.”

Arizona's Dylan Anderson flexes after dropping a dunk on Western Oregon in the second half of Thursday's exhibition.

Kriisa may have to take even more on his shoulders without Ramey around for the Wildcats’ first three regular-season games, starting in Arizona’s Nov. 7 season opener against Nicholls.

Lloyd took a non-combative stance on the suspension, which arose because Ramey played in the seniors-only Portsmouth Invitational. The event has not previously needed NCAA certification because it used to be played only by seniors who had no more college eligibility, but the NCAA's COVID-year eligibility exception created the possibility that seniors such as Ramey could return for another season.

"He was involved in a situation that had nothing to do with us and ... the NCAA has rules," Lloyd said. "They feel like it violated one of their rules that warranted a three-game suspension. So there it is. I'm not the guy that's up here ... I'll let you guys complain about the NCAA. I don't complain. I just look forward."

Without Ramey, Lloyd is expected to start Henderson, but Kriisa, Pelle Larsson and Boswell will be the only available players with point guard experience.

Larsson wound up finishing Tuesday with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists after picking up two fouls in the first two minutes of the game, prompting Lloyd to substitute Henderson for him quickly.

From there, Lloyd later moved out Kriisa and Ballo for Bal and Veesaar, while moving Ramey to the point guard spot. Later in the first half, Lloyd played freshman wing Filip Borovicanin and Boswell, while Anderson played the final four minutes of the half.

Arizona's Cedric Henderson Jr. tries to tie up Western Oregon's Daisone Hughes in the first half of Tuesday's exhibition game.

Lloyd continued to mix and match lineups the rest of the game, going with smaller and bigger lineups, while giving Boswell 10 minutes of action after he was cleared to practice fully just over a week ago following offseason surgery to repair a broken foot.

β€œIt was actually (like) a very typical practice, just sub in and out different lineups, small and big,” Henderson said. β€œJust kind of playing with different things to see how it will fit and how things will work. Because you never know what may happen throughout the season.”

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter: @brucepascoe