History repeated itself Saturday afternoon, when the fourth-ranked Arizona Wildcats overcame a sluggish start to rout the Washington Huskies 92-68 in Seattle.
The win officially completed a sweep of the Washington schools and brought the Wildcats’ record to 22-2 in Tommy Lloyd’s first season.
How did the UA take care of business in the Emerald City? These statistics tell the story:
81-43: How much Arizona outscored Washington after trailing 25-11 with 10:39 left in the first half.
25: Points Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin scored against the Huskies — his most since a win over Washington at McKale Center in January, when he tallied 27. In four games on the road against the Washington schools during his Arizona career, Mathurin is averaging 20.5 points and 6.8 rebounds.
23: Arizona's assists compared to Washington’s four. The 23 assists is the UA's most since it had 24 in a January win over Utah.
9: Turnovers committed by the Wildcats, their lowest number since they had eight against Cal on Jan. 23. Saturday marked the fourth time all season Arizona committed single-digit turnovers in a game.
7: Consecutive field goals Washington star and ex-Wildcat Terrell Brown Jr. scored to begin the game. Brown, who scored 28 points against Arizona in Tucson earlier in Pac-12 play, finished the night with 29 points on 9 for 20 shooting. The bulk of Brown’s offensive production came in the first half, when he recorded 24 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and 8-for-11 from the free-throw line.
Brown didn’t miss his first field-goal attempt until just over nine minutes remained in the first half.
1: Field goals the Huskies scored in the final 11:45 of the first half. Following a dunk by Nate Roberts, the only field goal Washington scored before halftime was a Brown lay-up with 28 seconds left. In the second half, Washington shot 10-for-35 (28.6%) from the field and 2-for-12 (16.7%) from 3-point range; Arizona shot 20-for-29 (69%) in that same span.
3: Consecutive win for the Wildcats in Seattle. The last time Arizona fell to UW at Hec Edmundson was the 2017-18 season, with the Huskies outlasting a Deandre Ayton-led UA team, 78-75.
513: Cincinnati area code. Why is that notable? Arizona assistant athletic director Ryan Reynolds and UA equipment manager Brian Brigger are Ohio natives and Cincinnati Bengals fans. Brigger announced Arizona’s uniform combination by posting a photo on Twitter of three red UA jerseys spelling out 5-1-3 with the caption “Game Dey,” paying homage to the Bengals’ “Who Dey” rally cry. Both Brigger and Reynolds are trekking to Los Angeles from Seattle for Super Bowl 56 as the Bengals face the L.A. Rams on Sunday.
