PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Home country hero Deandre Ayton collected career-highs in points (27) points and rebounds (14) but it wasn’t enough to keep defensively shaky Arizona from an 90-84 upset loss to North Carolina State in the quarterfinal of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Allonzo Trier had 27 points and five rebounds for the second-ranked Wildcats (3-1), which allowed N.C. State (4-0) to shoot 49.1 percent from the field.
Offensively, while Arizona managed to take care of the ball after some early turnovers against N.C. State's presses, but struggled defensively and never were able to get going from 3-point range -- where UA shot just 2 of 17 from beyond the arc.
Allerik Freeman led N.C. State in scoring with 24 points on 7-for-18 shooting.
The loss dropped Arizona into the consolation bracket of the Atlantis tournament, and the Wildcats will next play the loser between Northern Iowa and SMU on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. That game will only be streamed on ESPN3.
While the game was tied at 40 at halftime, N.C. State took early leads of up to nine points in the first five minutes of the second half before Trier rattled off eight points in a span of just 1:04 to pull the Wildcats into a brief lead.
Jackson-Cartwright hit Trier for a layup to cut the Wolfpack’s lead to 62-58 while a steal by Brandon Randolph led to a dunk by Trier to make it 60-62 – and then Trier came back again for another dunk to tie the game at 62 with 9:42 to go, then hit two free throws 25 seconds later to give UA a 64-62 lead.
The teams traded leads several times the rest of the way, while Ayton even hit a charging Keanu Pinder for a fast-break dunk to give UA a 75-73 lead with 5:08 left.
But N.C. State pulled ahead in the final minutes and a turnover on a perimeter handoff pass from Alex Barcello to Parker Jackson-Cartwright all but sealed UA’s fate.
In the first half, Ayton had 16 points and six rebounds to help Arizona out of an early hole and into a 40-40 tie.
Ayton struggled early but wound up scoring 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting while also making 5 of 7 free throws. Dusan Ristic added 10 points and five rebounds, with late production against the undersized Wolfpack that pulled the Wildcats into a tie.
Although the Wildcats were down 15-6 early and trailed nearly all of the half, Ristic tied it at 35 with two free throws and again at 37 with 1:03 to go. Arizona's Allonzo Trier and N.C. State's Lennard Freeman each had three points the rest of the way to result in the halftime tie.
Arizona tried a new starting lineup with the athletic Dylan Smith at small forward, but even though Smith scored the first basket of the game, the Wildcats went off to their worst start of the season.
Arizona coughed up three turnovers within the first five minutes, two by Allonzo Trier, and N.C. State converted them into five points. The Wolfpack also hit three of their first six 3-pointers to take a 15-6 lead with 13:42 left, when UA coach Sean Miller called timeout.
The Wildcats later pulled within three points when Ayton heated up. Ayton brought UA within 25-22 with a 3-pointer from the top of the key while later cutting the Wolfpack’s lead to 27-25 on a 3-point play.
But N.C. State stayed on top almost to the end of the half thanks to its 3-point shooting. Torin Dorn hit two straight 3s to give N.C. State a 35-28 lead with 3:57 to go until the Wildcats pulled close in the final minutes.
Miller pulled freshman Emmanuel Akot from the starting lineup to make room for Smith. The move did not appear to be related to injury or another issue and Akot wound up playing five minutes in the half.
Arizona finished the half shooting 48.4 percent from the field and actually finished with fewer turnovers than N.C. State, which had six to UA's five.
