SEATTLE β Playing without starters Kadeem Allen and Dusan Ristic, the Arizona Wildcats struggled to put away one of the Pac-12βs worst teams Saturday.
But with 26 points from Lauri Markkanen and another 21 from Seattle native Allonzo Trier, the Wildcats had enough to win their eighth straight game over Washington, 76-68 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
While Allen went through pregame warmups with a bandage and splint on his dislocated right pinkie, he did not play along with Ristic, who sprained his left ankle on Thursday at Washington State.
Freshman guard Markelle Fultz had 26 points to lead the Huskies, nearly helped the Huskies pull out an improbable win in what is expected to be his last home game, making it a one-possession game when he hit two free throw attempts with 1:45 left.
But after Markkanen missed a hook shot, giving Washington a chance to tie the game or cut it to one, Carlos Johnson was called for a charge as he drove to the basket. On UAβs ensuing possession, Markkanen missed a 3-pointer but Chance Comanche dunked in the rebound to make it 73-68 and effectively put it away.
Markkanen finished with 26 points on 9 for 17 shooting while Allonzo Trier had 21 points on 6-for-10 shooting in his return home to Seattle.
The win moved Arizona to 25-3 overall and 14-1 in the Pac-12, while Washington dropped to 9-18 and 2-13. UA has only home games with USC and UCLA remaining plus a regular-season finale at ASU on March 4.
The Wildcats pulled out some rarely used zone defense in the second half after the Huskies tied the game at 42 at halftime and kept it close early in the second half. But UA went ahead by nine, 67-58, when Markkanen hit a pair of free throws with 7:20 left before the game became tighter in the final minutes.
In the first half, Arizona allowed Washington to shoot 57.7 percent and pull into a 42-42 halftime tie.
Fultz, who had been held largely in check for much of the first half, hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left in the half to tie the game and finished the half with 13 points.
The Huskies' offense was enough to match that of Markkanen, who had 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting without taking a 3-point shot, in a game when Ristic sat out with a sprained left ankle he suffered on Thursday at Washington State.
Through the first 16 minutes of the game, Washington hit 65 percent from the field and made 3 of 4 3-pointers.
Arizona point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, starting in Allenβs place, added nine points for the Wildcats while Trier had eight.
Trier started off the scoring, with 3-pointers on two early UA possessions, and the Wildcats went on to lead by up to eight points in the first half. But Fultz tied the game at 33 with a pair of free throws with 4:42 left and then later re-tied it with his 3-pointer.
