Arizona guard Justin Kier and the rest of the bench cheers following a second-half basket in Thursday night's win over No. 3 UCLA in McKale Center.

 Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Just nine days after losing by 16 points at UCLA, Arizona had the sort of opportunity that great seasons are built on.

The Wildcats didn’t waste it.

The Bruins were at their house. First place was on the line. McKale Center was packed, as loud as it has been all season, giddily supporting every shot from guards Kerr Kriisa and Dalen Terry after their scoreless efforts at Pauley Pavilion.

Yet in their 76-66 win over UCLA on Thursday, which vaulted Arizona into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12, there was a subtleness to it all.

The Wildcats did not crank up the scoring into the 90s. Terry actually contributed more as a passer and rebounder, with seven assists and nine rebounds to go with 10 points, and the Wildcats figured out a way to match up differently this time UCLA on both ends of the floor.

It was not about revenge for the Wildcats as much it was just about getting back on track and, once again, finding a different way to win, getting to an 18-2 record and 8-1 mark in the Pac-12 that gave them sole possession of first place.

“We had a great game plan and we did it perfectly,” center Oumar Ballo said.

The numbers suggested as much. After they shot just 32.2% and allowed UCLA (16-3, 8-2) to shoot 50% in a 75-69 loss at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 25, Arizona shot 48% from the field and keeping the Bruins to just 38.9% Thursday.

Arizona Wildcats guard Dalen Terry is all smiles during the second half of Thursday night's win oveer UCLA in McKale Center.

Some things changed. A lot of things.

Defensively, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, the Wildcats simply did a much better job of contesting shots, keeping the Bruins to just 3 of 14 3-point shooting while even finding a way to limit center Cody Riley to just 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting.

It was “staying on their body, making i tougher for them,” Lloyd said. “To hold that team to 38%, I’m pretty happy with it.”

Offensively, the Wildcats pounded the ball inside to forward Azuolas Tubelis early, in what was the Lithuanian power forward’s most productive game since spraining his ankle on Jan. 20 at Stanford. Then they hung on with a defensive-oriented lineup in the second half while UCLA trimmed what was a 17-point lead all the way down to three.

“I think we made a lot of adjustments from the way we played the last game,” Lloyd said. “We kind of had to change some of our offensive schemes a little bit. I wanted to go inside even more than we did. I think that really kind of got us started today. There's a real advantage for us in there.

“And defensively, we didn't sit back. We were way more aggressive. Obviously it's probably tougher shooting on the road than it is at home but we didn't want to sit back and let them dictate the terms like they did at UCLA.”

The thing is, Arizona didn’t dictate a 90-point game, like they have so many times this season.

Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis eyes the basket as he's defended by UCLA  guard Jules Bernard in Thursday's first half.

“I thought we didn't need to play frantic, so I told our guys, `Hey, let's value possession because they're a good defensive team,’ “ Lloyd said. “So get comfortable being deeper in possessions and we ran maybe more sets than we've run all year.

“You have to be able to win games multiple ways. I don't care if we're running. It's not an aesthetic for me. It's about a result. I love playing fast because I think it makes the game easier. But if you're not if playing fast, if Mach speed is not the right plan to win the game, well then, we'll slow it down.”

So Arizona came out and traded blows with UCLA early, with Tubelis scoring eight points over the game’s first six minutes, and then went on a 12-0 run midway through the first half as the momentum built.

During the run, which put UA ahead 28-14 lead with 8:56 left in the half, Bennedict Mathurin scored a three-point play after he was fouled on a shot he took in the paint, while Christian Koloko dunked off an inbounds play.

Then Kriisa drew the loudest cheers of the early portions of the game when he sank his first 3-pointer en route to a 16-point effort, and Justin Kier then sank another 3 before UCLA’s Jules Bernard ended the Wildcats' run with a 3 in the left corner, leaving the game at 28-17 with 8:28 left.

Also notable early: That Terry dished assists to Oumar Ballo and Tubelis inside while later stepping back for a corner 3 that gave Arizona a 16-10 lead with 13:52 left in the half.

Both appeared to have healed a bit from that Jan. 25 experience at Pauley.

“We were thinking about it,” Terry said. “But it was just a loss that happened.”

Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin breaks through the defense of UCLA Bruins guards Johnny Juzang and Jules Bernard in the first half.

Lloyd said he had “visions” that Terry also would go 2 for 2 from 3-point range, adding some tidy long-range shooting to the Wildcats’ offense, but he was hardly complaining when Terry actually went 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and 4 for 6 overall.

“I believe in that kid,” Lloyd said. “He’s kind of settling back down like he was early in the year where he's playing with force, but he's playing with his feet on the ground. And he's making effort plays, an offensive rebound putback, a defensive rebound. He's going up and getting it up above the rim.

"Dalen's a special kid and a special player and he deserves all the accolades that are coming his way.”

Kriisa had his share of good memories too, though he finished 4 for 14 overall form the field, and two 3s he missed late in the game were quickly turned into easy and potentially critical UCLA baskets. David Singleton turned one of them into a fast-break layup while another eventually became a layup inside from Jaime Jaquez, cutting UA’s lead to just 64-61 with 3:52 left.

At that point, 14 points had eroded from UA’s first half lead. But, for Lloyd, that still meant Arizona was up by three.

“What was going through my mind is, `Win the game by one,' ” Lloyd said. “I'm not going to panic. I'm not going to get caught up in it.”

Lloyd stuck with his plan, keeping Mathurin on the floor for just 12 minutes in the second half and Tubelis just eight after halftime, saying he decided to “ride it out” with a defensive lineup he liked against the Bruins.

As it turned out, it all worked out fine for the Wildcats. Christian Koloko hit 3 of 4 free throws from there and Kriisa, who had made just 2 of 9 three-pointers to that point, hit a third 3-pointer with 1:48 left to give UA a 70-61 lead.

A pair of free throws from Pelle Larsson, after he drew a fifth foul from UCLA guard Tyger Campbell, gave the Wildcats a 72-63 lead.

Now UA is alone in first place, having gone tit-for-tat against a fellow Top-10 team, appearing, maybe as much as ever, as one of the nation’s best teams.

If that’s not the message they were trying to send Thursday, it came across anyway.

“I'm just trying to coach basketball and help these guys be the best team they can be and I'm trying to build this program to be the best program it can be,” Lloyd said. “So I wasn't out to prove anything today. I don't know if our players were out to prove anything today.

"But I think everybody knows we're a good team. If you ask all the coaches that played against us I would assume there's consensus that we're pretty good. So I'm proud of that fact.”

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe