Arizona Wildcats guard Dalen Terry gestures to the referee in the second half of Wednesday's 101-76 win over Northern Colorado.

 Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Blowing out five opponents in five previous home games set a pretty firm precedent for the Arizona Wildcats.

Usually, it involved 20 or 25 points from Bennedict Mathurin, maybe five blocks from Christian Koloko, a double-double from Azuolas Tubelis, a sprinkling of 3s from guys such as Kerr Kriisa, Kim Aiken and Justin Kier, plus a whole lot of passing to tie it all together.

But for the first 32 minutes of Arizona’s 101-76 win over Northern Colorado on Wednesday at McKale, the Wildcats lost the formula.

Arizona Wildcats forward Azuolas Tubelis, left, Northern Colorado guard Matt Johnson II and Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin eye a loose ball during Wednesday's first half.

Having given up 16 3-pointers in their 83-79 win at Illinois on Saturday, the Wildcats gave up 6 of 8 in the first 10 minutes of the second half and led by just four points with 11 minutes to go.

In particular, they couldn't stop a guard named Daylen Kountz, who had just two points on 1-for-4 shooting while playing for Colorado when he appeared at McKale Center nearly two years ago, but poured in a career-high 33 points while going 4 for 5 from 3-point territory on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said the Bears’ triangle-and-two defense messed up the Wildcats’ offense, with Arizona able to dominate inside but struggling early on the perimeter. In addition, UA didn’t have Aiken in the building for their third straight game because of undisclosed reasons.

Bottom line: About 11,000 folks showed up at McKale Center and, for the first time this season, they were needed, standing on their feet to cheer loudly throughout much of the second half as the Wildcats finally turned it into a comfortable win by going on a 30-9 run over the final 11 minutes.

β€œTo be honest, the crowd was better than we were tonight for a lot of the game,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, when asked about the fans. β€œI just think when you're when you're playing at home and you're there to support your team, I think as a fan, it's pretty cool to be proactive and make yourself part of the environment rather than sit back and worry about every referee call or every tough shot one of our guys takes or every defensive mistake.”

The Wildcats eventually won it by dominating inside, with Koloko having 19 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, while Tubelis had 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. They also gradually warmed up outside, eventually putting six players into double figures overall.

But it was different this time. It was an effort. It was not at all like it was for Arizona against the five other mid- and low-major opponents they have hosted at McKale this season.

β€œIt’s gonna definitely happen,” guard Justin Kier said. β€œYou’re not going to win every game by 50 and when you have a target on your back, everybody wants to beat you. So we’ve got to take this game and know that we’ve got to come out and play every night.”

The way Kier and Lloyd described it, though, it wasn’t all about the Wildcats. There was the defense that Lloyd said β€œface-guarded” Mathurin, limiting him to just 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, after he dumped 30 points on Illinois and was named the USBWA's national Player of the Week.

Then there was the offense that posed a different perimeter challenge than Illinois: While the Wildcats were busy focusing on Illini big man Kofi Cockburn when the Illini went off from the perimeter on Saturday, on Wednesday it was a bunch of guys popping out all over the place in ways the Wildcats didn’t always expect.

β€œWe obviously didn’t execute well defensively,” Lloyd said. β€œBut Northern Colorado gets a ton of credit. They came out and ran some interesting concepts. They were really aggressive and they're veteran players. Those guys have been playing in that system for four or five years, they had a week to prepare and they did a great job.”

But Arizona also still had enough to counter the Bears. The first weapon was obvious immediately when Tubelis drove inside to collect 11 points over the first six minutes of the game, helping UA take a quick 13-5 lead.

Kountz then singlehandledly made it a 13-13 tie, hitting a jumper and two threes over the next two minutes, and he later made a four-point play that pulled the Bears within 37-31 when he hit a 3, drew a foul from Mathurin and hit the ensuring free throw.

Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis flashes his fingers towards the ZonaZoo during Wednesday’s first half.

Arizona still went ahead 52-42 at halftime and led 67-55 five minutes into the second half but ran into trouble again. Hitting 6 of 8 3-pointers over the first 10 minutes of the second half allowed Northern Colorado to cut UA’s lead to just 71-67 when Matt Johnson hit a 3 with 11:10 left.

Northern Colorado finished 11 of 26 overall from 3, with three players combining for 10 of the long range shots: Kountz was 4 of 5, Dru Kuxhausen was 4 of 10 and Johnson 2 for 5.

β€œThey had great guards,” Kier said. β€œOnce those guys got it going and started feeling comfortable, you can see that they wanted to continue to do that. Shout out to them for having a great game. But I'm glad that we buckled down and got stops at the end.

At the end, it did finally become the sort of game the Wildcats have been playing at home all season so far.

Mathurin cut down the left baseline for a dunk to give UA a 82-72 lead entering the final eight minutes. And, over a 70-second span that immediately followed, Koloko scored twice inside and blocked a shot by Northern Colorado’s Bodie Hume that led to a layup by guard Dalen Terry on the other end, giving UA an 88-72 lead with 5:46 left.

In the second half alone, Mathurin had nine points on 4-of-6 shooting, Terry had 12, and Koloko had eight points and five rebounds.

Things wound up being OK for the Wildcats again.

They moved 10-0 for the first time since their last Elite Eight team went 12-0 in 2014-15. They also picked up another game video to learn from as their nonconference schedule comes to a close after a game Saturday against Cal Baptist and one at No. 18-ranked Tennessee next Wednesday night.

β€œI don't mind close games,” Lloyd said. β€œI've been in a lot of close games and I've been in some blowouts. I think as a coach you're anticipating going in competing and playing a hard-fought game, because that that that's what it takes to be a championship team.

β€œSo I thank Northern Colorado for their effort. I think it's hopefully going to help us get better.”

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe