UA’s Chase Jeter slams home an alley-oop jam for two of his career-high 21 points against Montana’s center Kelby Kramer during the first half.

 photos by Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star

Freshman Brandon Williams’ knee is banged up and he isn’t shooting well. His teammates can’t hit 3-pointers, either. And absolutely no Arizona Wildcat player could hit a bucket of any type from the field for over 10 minutes in the first half.

What’s more, there were 16 Arizona turnovers Wednesday against a team that, as coach Sean Miller noted, doesn’t really try to force turnovers.

But this also happened: The Wildcats won, 61-42 over Montana, thanks to a concerted defensive effort and a career-high 21 points from center Chase Jeter.

After two straight losses, including a dismal 58-49 outing with Baylor on Saturday that snapped the Wildcats’ 52-game nonconference home-court winning streak, that result was enough to bring a notable sigh of relief to the McKale Center seats and locker room alike.

β€œThis was a big game for us, for sure,” Miller said, noting that UA had won 87 of its previous 91 games at home. β€œIt’s bigger than just a 40-minute game when you play here so when you lose, you feel like you’re letting a lot of people down.

β€œMost importantly, you’re letting yourself down, this team down. Nobody felt good about what we did against Baylor. Some of it was self-inflicted and some of it was a matter of circumstances. But you can only control the response and we moved forward.”

Arizona guard Justin Coleman pesters Montana Grizzlies guard Ahmaad Rorie at midcourt during the second half at McKale Center.

Jeter indicated there weren’t any special player-only or team meetings after the Baylor debacle, in which UA was outrebounded 51-19, but Miller said they discussed having to be a hard-playing group, not having the margin for error to do anything but that.

So on Wednesday, the Wildcats played hard, if far less than perfectly. They survived their first-half dry spell with defense and took a 22-15 lead into halftime and then relied on Jeter and 10 second-half points from Brandon Randolph to stay comfortably ahead the rest of the way.

The win moved Arizona to 8-4 heading into its final nonconference game, on Saturday at McKale Center against UC Davis (3-7). Montana dropped to 6-4.

β€œThe main thing was to just keep positive and not let two losses define the rest of our season,” Jeter said. β€œThis was a big win for us tonight.”

Arizona wound up holding Montana to just 26.9 percent shooting and took full advantage of a wrist injury that held out Griz center Jamar Akoh, Montana’s leading scorer (15.0 points) and rebounder (8.0).

Not only did the Wildcats outrebound Montana 40-30, holding the Griz to just six offensive rebounds despite their 38 missed shots, but they also successfully pounded the ball inside to Jeter.

Arizona forward Ira Lee puts up a shot over Montana forward Mack Anderson during the second half as the Wildcats ended a 2-game losing streak.

The junior transfer from Duke established himself with 11 points in the first half, then scored the first basket after halftime. He later hit a hook for Arizona’s 38-21 lead with 13:18 to go and then returned to throw one in high off the glass to give UA a 40-26 lead with 12 minutes left.

By then, Jeter already had 20 points to break his career high of 19, set at Alabama on Dec. 9, and the Wildcats had few worries the rest of the way.

β€œI think that was one of the key points, regarding their size,” Jeter said. β€œThey’re missing a great player. Their five man (Akoh) is really good. Wish him the best of luck getting back … but my teammates just did a great job of finding me when I was open and having the confidence in me to score when I got it.”

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Jeter’s dominance inside took the pressure off the perimeter, where Arizona made just 2 of 12 3-pointers. Dylan Smith, starting for Williams, drew Miller’s praise for his defensive effort but was 0 for 4 from 3 while Ryan Luther was 1 for 3.

Williams hit the other 3-pointer but was 1 for 7 overall after going 1 for 9 in UA’s loss to Baylor. That’s a 2-for-16 stretch for a guard who shot 37.3 percent over UA’s first 10 games, and Miller indicated his knee has a lot to do with it.

Arizona Wildcats forward Ryan Luther (10) blocks a shot from Montana Grizzlies guard Kendal Manuel (12) during the second half of the University of Arizona Wildcats vs. University of Montana Grizzlies men’s college basketball game, Dec. 19, 2018, in McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona won 61-42.

Miller said Williams and Justin Coleman bumped knees a day before the Baylor game, and the team wasn’t sure initially how serious it was. Miller said it was not related to the congenital knee issue that cost Williams his junior season at Crespi High School in Los Angeles.

β€œBut it is that knee that he dealt with in high school, so it tends to swell up if he has a contusion or sometimes wear and tear,” Miller said. β€œBut he’s structurally sound. He has no injury but because it swelled up we’ve really taken him out of practices. Watching him in the Baylor game, he gave it his best but he wasn’t 100 percent. That hurt our team and it also wasn’t fair to Brandon to acknowledge he wasn’t 100 percent when he played.”

Miller said he’s limited Williams in recent practices and didn’t play him down the stretch (and only 23 minutes total) to make sure he was OK.

β€œI think each day he gets a little bit better,” Miller said. β€œBut when you’re a freshman, you have a big role, and your team needs you to play well β€” and you’re injured β€” you can see where his shooting, you can lose confidence.”

As the minutes wore down Wednesday, it was clear the Wildcats had confidence in several places. They even received some help on both ends of the floor from freshman Devonaire Doutrive, with Miller suggesting again that Doutrive could play more often despite not using him in the Wildcats’ previous four games.

Their leading scorer, Randolph, also left on a confident note, having made 5 of 9 shots after going 6 for 16 against Baylor.

β€œI thought it was a great win,” Randolph said. β€œIt was great to see … us keep doing what we’re doing. I feel like we’re back now.”

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