Brandon Randolph had 25 points on 8-for-12 shooting to help pull the Arizona Wildcats out of some first-half blahs and beat Houston Baptist 90-60 in the season opener for both teams Wednesday at McKale Center.
Brandon Williams added 13 points and center Chase Jeter had 11 in their debuts for the Wildcats. Williams is the Wildcats' highest-rated freshman while Jeter transferred from Duke after the 2016-17 season.
The Wildcats shot 50 percent and outrebounded HBU 48-39 overall, but allowed the Huskies to collect 16 offensive rebounds. Then again, the Huskies created a lot of opportunity to collect those offensive rebounds by hitting just 32.4 percent from the field, including a 5-for-21 mark from 3-point range. HBU also made just 40.7 percent (11 for 27) of its free throws.
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Arizona shot just 37.5 percent and had 11 turnovers in the first half, after which they led the low-major Huskies by only nine points. HBU had the sixth-worst RPI out of 351 Division I teams last season and was playing without injured standout center Josh Ibarra.
After their sluggish first half, the Wildcats began gradually pulling ahead of their low-major opponent in the second half. They took a 22-point lead, 59-37, after one inspired play from Dylan Smith, who stole the ball from HBU’s Ian DuBose, leading to a 3-pointer from Alex Barcello.
The Wildcats built their lead to 74-41 on an 8-0 run, and UA coach Sean Miller inserted freshman guard Devonaire Doutrive, who was the last scholarship player on the UA bench and did not play in UA’s exhibition win over Chaminade on Sunday.
In the first half, Randolph had 10 points to lead Arizona to a 33-24 halftime lead despite a rough shooting effort by both teams.
While Arizona shot its 37.5 percent from the field, Houston Baptist hit just 23.5 percent of its field goals, including just 1 of 10 from 3-point range while also hitting just 7 of 14 free throws. The Wildcats, however, added 11 turnovers to keep them from taking a double-digit lead into halftime.
The game started slowly … before it even started. A spring inside the south basket rim at McKale broke during warmups, prompting the rim to appear bent, and it required a 15-minute delay to be replaced.
Arizona then jumped to a 7-0 lead over the poor-shooting Huskies, who went scoreless for the first 3:21 of the game. HBU then missed 9 of 10 shots after a layup that cut it to 7-2. By the third media timeout, with just under eight minutes left, HBU had made just 3 of 18 shots.
Arizona made only 5 of 15 to that point but the Wildcats were outrebounding HBU 18-11 overall, even with forward Ira Lee sitting out his one-game suspension after a DUI arrest in August.
Without Lee, UA coach Sean Miller turned to former walk-on forward Jake DesJardins in the first half for backup help in the post.
The Wildcats turned the ball over 11 times in the first half but Houston Baptist hardly took advantage, scoring just four points off turnovers.
Arizona appeared to draw about 12,000 fans inside McKale Center for its season opener, including former Wildcat Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who played for the Nets at the Suns on Tuesday.
