SALT LAKE CITY – Behind another dominant inside performance from Deandre Ayton, Arizona held off a flood of Utah 3-pointers in the second half to hang on for a 94-82 win over Utah on Thursday at the Huntsman Center.
Utah hit eight of its first 10 3-pointers in the second half to completely erase what were UA leads of up to 17 points, but Ayton could hardly be stopped, especially when he received the ball more often in the second half.
Ayton finished with 24 points on 10-for-15 shooting and 13 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season. Rawle Alkins added 22 points and Parker Jackson-Cartwright had 18.
Utah was led by guard Sedrick Barefield, who nailed 6 of 11 3-pointers and scored 23 points overall.
The win moved UA to 12-3 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12, while Utah dropped to 10-4 and 2-1.
After leading by 14 at halftime and up to 15 points early in the second half, the Wildcats gave it all away with 6:03 remaining, when David Collette drove inside for a layup to tie the game at 70.
Utah made 8 of 10 3-pointeers through the first 16 minutes of the second half, with guard Sedrick Barefield going 5 of 6 from long range over that span. Then Justin Bibbins hit a 3 with 3:45 to go to pull Utah within 77-75 and Collette hit a pair of free throws to tie it again at 77, with 3:24 left.
But after that tie, Rawle Alkins hit 5 of 6 free throws to help UA take an 84-77 lead with 1:48 and the Wildcats hung on from there.
In the first half, Parker Jackson-Cartwright had 13 points and three rebounds to lead Arizona to a 46-32 halftime lead.
While building leads of up to 17 points in the first half, the Wildcats shot 51.5 percent from the field in the first half and kept Utah to just 36.7 percent. Jackson-Cartwright was 4-for-5 from the field, hitting all three 3-pointers he took.
The Utes made just 3 of 12 3-pointers and were clobbered on the glass, with UA outrebounding them 25-13 overall and collecting seven offensive rebounds that led to 13 second-chance points.
Arizona established itself quickly. Jackson-Cartwright hit an open 3 from the left corner on the Wildcats’ second possession and five points from Dusan Ristic in the first four minutes helped UA build a 10-3 lead at the first media timeout.
Utah was shooting just 23.1 percent from the field with nine minutes left in the half but hit 5 of 7 afterward to creep within 36-28 on a layup from Donnie Tillman with 3:01 to go. But Jackson-Cartwright hit another 3 pointer during the final minutes to give UA the double-digit advantage heading into halftime.
The Utes, 10-3, were coming off their first-ever road sweep at Oregon and Oregon State last weekend. Arizona will play Saturday at Colorado, which upset fourth-ranked ASU 90-81 in overtime Thursday.
