Arizona center Oumar Ballo kisses the MVP trophy after Arizona defeated Creighton 81-79 in Wednesday’s Maui Invitational championship game.

 Marco Garcia, Associated Press

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Arizona’s Oumar Ballo kissed the Maui Invitational MVP trophy Wednesday afternoon in a moment that might have signaled he has finally arrived.

He won’t call it that. But there’s plenty of evidence in Ballo’s dominant performance during the Wildcats’ three-game Maui title run, which finished Wednesday with No. 14-ranked Arizona’s 81-79 win over No. 10 Creighton.

During the final game, the 7-foot junior from Mali shot 14 for 17 from the field while setting new career highs with 30 points and 13 rebounds. In two earlier Maui games, Ballo totaled 33 points and 19 rebounds in wins over Cincinnati and No. 17 San Diego State.

Total tourney damage: 63 points, 32 rebounds and 79.4% shooting from the floor.

“I didn’t even know that,” Ballo said about hitting 27 of 34 shots on the island. “That’s a little bit crazy.”

That’s about as close as Ballo, who has slowly developed over more than three years of college basketball, will come to bragging. He was otherwise quick to compliment his teammates and didn’t want to hear anything about having reached some sort of lofty plateau.

“I actually haven’t arrived because we haven’t done anything yet,” Ballo said. “It’s a long season. It’s a marathon. So I’m just trying to run with the pace and trying to be available for my team.”

That has been the Wildcats’ goal, after all: Keep Ballo on the floor.

After center Christian Koloko declared for the NBA draft last spring, it became clear that Ballo would be needed possibly for as many minutes as he could stand.

He improved as last season went on, but averaged only 15.3 minutes and it was unknown how many more he could put his 7-foot frame and 260 pounds through.

But Ballo nearly doubled that figure on Maui. He averaged 29.7 minutes over three games, logging 29 on Tuesday night against San Diego State and then 30 against Creighton in a game played about 15 hours later.

Arizona center Oumar Ballo holds the Maui Invitational championship trophy after the 14th-ranked Wildcats defeated 10th-ranked Creighton.

“I have zero massage,” Ballo said, laughing, when asked if extra treatments helped him get through the week. “I just drank a lot of water. And, man, I want to play those games. I want to play those minutes. This is why I’m here. I will do anything to be available for my team.”

The secret to Ballo’s stamina, actually, may stem from what happened well before the season. Ballo put in long hours trying to improve his stamina under the direction of UA strength and conditioning coach Chris Rounds.

Before UA coach Tommy Lloyd dove into his postgame media conference Wednesday, he ran down a list of support staffers and student managers to thank — including those involved with physical care, psychology and nutrition — and made especially sure to include Rounds because of Ballo’s MVP performance.

“He and Oumar are gonna share this trophy, because they did it together,” Lloyd said. “He’s done an amazing job with Oumar, getting him ready to play.”

More time on the floor, combined with Ballo’s skill, means more production.

It’s simple.

“He brings everything. He rebounds, he scores. He had 14-17. That’s outstanding,” Kriisa said. “Oumar’s been putting a lot of work in during the summer trying to get his body better, his fat down, which he has done.”

Hearing that analysis, Lloyd leaned over and asked Kriisa if he or Ballo actually had the higher body-fat percentage.

“Me,” Kriisa said.

Arizona center Oumar Ballo dunks over Creighton defenders as part of his 30-point, 13-rebound performance.

Maybe so. But the fact is that Kriisa and perimeter mates Courtney Ramey and Pelle Larsson are helping Ballo, too. Creighton coach Greg McDermott pretty much admitted as much when he decided not to double-team Ballo.

“Ballo was a load down there,” McDermott said. “You have to make some decisions because of their ability to shoot, and we decided to play him 1-on-1.”

It may be the last time an opposing coach makes that decision. Ballo is getting too productive not to pay close attention to.

Ballo redshirted as a freshman at Gonzaga in 2019-20, played sparingly in 24 of Gonzaga’s 32 games in 2020-21. He followed Lloyd to Arizona last season, and average 15.3 minutes and 6.3 points per game.

Through six games this season, Ballo is averaging 19.0 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 76.8% from the field. In the unlikely event he ever gets too confident in himself, Ballo also has guardrails. He plays with Kriisa, that is.

“We are proud of Oumar and he definitely deserves this,” Kriisa said. “But I don’t want to give too much credit to Oumar too right now because Pelle played hard on defense, Courtney made great shots. It was a team effort.

“So Oumar doesn’t need to get above the clouds now because next Thursday we play again. This tournament is already finished and we’ve got to start playing again.”

Maybe then, the arrival comes in March. Or even April, at the Final Four in Houston.

After blazing through what is annually the toughest early-season tournament field, Ballo and the Wildcats may just have opened their ceiling up to that possibility.

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