SAN DIEGO — The top-seeded Arizona Wildcats played a far-from-perfect game against No. 16 Wright State but pulled away in the second half to win 87-70 at Viejas Arena to advance to the round of 32.
The Wildcats will play Sunday against TCU.
These numbers tell the story of Arizona’s opening round win over Wright State:
80%: Arizona started the game shooting 80%, making 12 of its first 15 shots to open up a 28-17 lead. During that opening stretch, UA hit four 3-pointers, including two from Pelle Larsson off the bench.
19: A key reason Wright State kept the game competitive was that Arizona turned the ball over 19 times, compared to just six by the Riders. It marked the most turnovers by the Cats in a game since having 20 at ASU on Feb. 7.
The game would’ve been even closer had Wright State scored more than six points of Arizona’s TOs.
17/13/6/5: Arizona center Christian Koloko made NCAA history by becoming the first player in tournament history to have 17 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and five blocks in a game. Koloko also had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game against UCLA.
The two-game stretch marks Koloko’s first time recording a double-double in back-to-back games in his career.
27%: Wright State’s Tanner Holden was limited to 11 points on 3 of 11 (27%) shooting after going for 37 in the team’s First Four win over Bryant. Prior to playing Arizona, Holden had been held under 30% shooting only
40:00: This was a wire-to-wire victory for Arizona which scored the first points of the game and never relinquished the lead.
1,826: Days since Arizona’s last NCAA Tournament win, which came five years ago to the day against Saint Mary’s.
3-0: Arizona improves to 3-0 all-time in NCAA Tournament games played in San Diego.
27-0: The Wildcats are 27-0 this season when scoring at least 80 points.
203: With nine blocks against Wright State, Arizona set a program record in a single season with 203.
