The Arizona Wildcats welcomed freshman Bennedict Mathurin back to the starting lineup and rode a wire-to-wire 71-50 win over Cal on Saturday afternoon.
The victory improved Arizona to 13-4 on the season and 7-4 in the Pac-12. These stats explain how the Cats overwhelmed the Golden Bears:
38:22
Arizona controlled it from start to finish, leading for 38:22 of 40 possible minutes. The Wildcats got out to a comfortable 10-2 lead in the first seven minutes and kept adding to it from there; the lead reached as many as 29 points during the second half.
The Cats have now won five Pac-12 games by more than 10 points, three of which have been by over 20.
18.3
UA point guard James Akinjo is averaging 18.3 points over his last six games and has scored at least 20 in half of those. Akinjo notched a team-high 20 points against Cal on 7 of 14 shooting.
His eight assists Saturday also marked the fifth time this season he’s had at least eight.
10
After coming off the bench against Stanford on Thursday while still recovering from an ankle sprain, Mathurin made his way back into UA’s starting lineup.
The freshman recorded 10 points against the Golden Bears, eight of them in the first half. It’s the fourth time in the last five appearances the Montreal native has reached double figures.
42%
Shooting guard Matt Bradley accounted for 42% of his team’s points.
Bradley poured in 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting and went 5 for 6 from 3-point range. The other 12 Golden Bears players that saw the court Saturday accounted for 11 combined field goals.
4
The Wildcats are now 4-0 this year when they start Akinjo, Terrell Brown Jr., Mathurin, Azuolas Tubelis and Christian Koloko.
