Is Wildcats' ceiling even higher? Arizona crushes Akron 93-65 in NCAA 1st-round game

SEATTLE — Throughout all their inconsistencies this season, the Arizona Wildcats always had a formula for drubbing mid-major opponents: Dominate with size, share the ball and defend capably.

Their first-round NCAA Tournament game with 13th-seeded Akron was no exception.

In their 93-65 win over Akron on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena, the fourth-seeded Wildcats crushed the smaller Zips inside and held their normally efficient 3-point shooting to under 28.0% while shooting 56.5% within a well-balanced offense themselves. 

Details on that crushing: Arizona outrebounded Akron 53-22, scored 18 points off 15 offensive rebounds, and outscored the Zips in the paint 48-20 — while also getting the ball outside and hitting 12 of 25 3-pointers.

"I feel like that's when we're at our best, playing in the paint and inside-out," said UA point guard Jaden Bradley, who led the Wildcats with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists. "When everybody's showing their talents, spreading that love and the ball is moving."

The win moved fourth-seeded Arizona to 23-12 and into a second-round game Sunday against fifth-seeded Oregon, which similarly blew away 12-seed Liberty 81-52 in a later Friday semifinal. The matchup of former Pac-12 rivals is scheduled to tipoff at 6:40 p.m. and be televised on TBS.

Akron, winners of the Mid American Conference regular-season and tournament titles, finished the season at 28-7.

While Bradley led the way for Arizona outside, power forward Trey Townsend had 16 points and eight rebounds and freshman Carter Bryant added 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks. Guards Caleb Love and KJ Lewis each chipped in 10 points, while Love added seven rebounds and four assists.

Overall, Arizona set up 21 of its 39 field goals with assists.

"It felt great out there," Love said. "Everybody was connecting on both ends of the floor. We stuck to the game plan."

It was the third game in the Wildcats' past four that Townsend had scored in double figures, prompting Love to note that he's "in his Oakland bag," referring to how Townsend played a standout role in helping Oakland beat Kentucky in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament -- and dropped 30 points on eventual Final Four participant N.C. State two days later.

Now it's Townsend's fifth season and he knows there will not be a sixth.

"I'm nearing the end of my college career and I want to end it playing as well as I can," Townsend said. "I was a little bit down on myself (during the Big 12 season) but I knew whatever the opportunity I would have, I'd just try to help do whatever I can to help the team win."

There was really only one issue. While jumping out to a 9-0 start and taking a 41-31 halftime lead in a game the Wildcats never trailed, they did commit 12  turnovers and missed all five free throws they took in the first half.

Maybe they were almost going too fast. 

"That was uncharacteristic for us," Love said of the turnovers. "It wasn't what they were doing. We were stepping out of bounds, I traveled, KJ traveled. But coach (Tommy) Lloyd helped us with that. During a timeout, he was just telling us 'just settle into the game. You all don't have to do nothing crazy, just settle into the game.'"

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Lloyd credited the Wildcats for having their emotions in a "sweet spot" before the game, not too high and not too low, then said it was obviously a great start to begin with three 3s, one each from Bradley, Townsend and Love.

Those threes, counting the one Townsend made after Tobe Awaka blocked an Akron shot, put Arizona ahead 9-0 advantage in the first two minutes.

But Arizona had seven turnovers over the next eight minutes, allowing the Zips to battle back and briefly tie the game at 11 when Shammah Scott hit a 3-pointer with 13:51 left.

"You just know as a coach that there's something coming, Akron hit back, and then our guys settled in," Lloyd said. "I think other than being a little bit loose with the ball in the first half, I thought we played exceptional."

Early turnovers were about the only thing Lloyd had to worry about. A 3-pointer from Anthony Dell’Orso gave UA a 28-19 lead with 5:44 to go and Bryant later hit a 3 from the top of the key to give the Wildcats their first double-digit lead, 31-21, with 4:35 left in the first half.

In the second half, Arizona had only four more turnovers, while outscoring the Zips 52-34 after halftime. 

Leading by 10 at halftime, Arizona jumped to a 50-33 lead after a 3 from Bradley less than four minutes into the second half. Continuing to dominate the glass and shoot over 50% early in the second half, the Wildcats went up by 20 with 15:17 left on a 3 from Lewis and later scored seven straight to go ahead 73-50 with 8:36 left.

Love hit a 3-pointer with 5:32 left to put the Wildcats up 81-53 and the game was entirely out of reach from there.

The Wildcats were so dominant that, afterward, Lloyd was asked if the Wildcats might have hit a ceiling between their rebounding and efficient offense.

He did not put a lid on it.

"I want to see what else is out there," Lloyd said. "I challenged our guys before the game, asked them, `could we out-rebound these guys by 15? And I think the answer ended up being yes. I think we outrebounded them by 31, which is how you give yourself a lot of margin for error.

"But in order to do that, you've got to get them to miss shots. When you miss shots, you got to have guys that assume you're going to miss and pursue rebounds. So just a great moment-by-moment effort by our guys."

Photos: Arizona rips the Zips 93-65, NCAA east region round of 64