BERKELEY, Calif. — Arizona center Oumar Ballo stood at the free-throw line midway through the second half, clanked the ball off the front of the rim, then leaned forward with a near-grin in apparent frustration.
Arizona’s 85-62 win over Cal was one of those nights for the fourth-ranked Wildcats. Ballo didn’t hit the second free throw either, and Arizona made only 6 of 17 shots (35.3%) from the line, easily its worst free-throw percentage of the season.
The Wildcats also had to deal with an illness to point guard Kerr Kriisa earlier this week that might have had something to do with his 0-for-5 3-point shooting.
But the Wildcats were playing hapless Cal. And they had their likely All-American back at work inside, where Azuolas Tubelis collected 23 points and 14 rebounds.
So it all was OK, for now, for the Wildcats. The free throws, Kriisa’s possible lack of energy, it all turned out to be a minor issue, at least for this one.
“I’m not going to overthink it,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said of the Wildcats’ free-throw shooting. “We obviously didn’t shoot well from the line, and that’s something we take pride in. Obviously we’ve got to continue to stay sharp and continue to work on it.”
Lloyd didn’t necessarily attribute Kerr’s errant 3-point shooting to his illness, but Kriisa did miss the Wildcats’ practices on Monday and Tuesday and was limited in Wednesday’s workout before suiting up Thursday. Kriisa also managed to dish eight assists with only one turnover in 28-minutes.
“He got really sick,” Lloyd said. “It’s going around this time of the year. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, he wasn’t really around that much. So for him to kind of work in a little bit of practice yesterday and come out and give us minutes, when he wasn’t feeling his best, says a lot about his character and the team player he is.”
While Tubelis’ inside efficiency led the Wildcats again, helping overcome Arizona’s struggles at the line, it was the perimeter group of Pelle Larsson, Cedric Henderson and Courtney Ramey helping Kriisa out.
Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa gets past Cal forward Kuany Kuany, left, and guard DeJuan Clayton during the first half their game in Berkeley, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
Larsson had 16 points off the bench while hitting all three 3-pointers he took, while Henderson had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Ramey added five assists and two steals without a turnover. As a team, the Wildcats went 11 for 26 from 3-point range despite Kriisa’s shot being off.
“I thought Pelle and Ced played with tremendous energy and really impacted the game,” Lloyd said. “That was fun to see, getting them able to get out in transition there, which is something we like to do, and Courtney played a really good floor game.”
Henderson, whose elevation into the starting lineup began just as Arizona began what is now a seven-game winning streak, said it wasn’t tough to keep motivated against a Cal team that is now 3-21, 2-11 in the Pac-12. Not considering what is on the line, at least.
“We’re on a road to win a championship, and we want to win a championship,” Henderson said. “That’s what our goal is, so we can’t ever come out and be lackluster against anybody.”
While the Wildcats moved to 22-3, 11-3 heading into a Saturday game at Stanford, there were at least moments when they appeared to let down a bit. The Wildcats didn’t really pull away from the Bears until the final few minutes, prompting Lloyd to play his usual top seven most of the game. He sprinkled a few minutes of Adama Bal late in the first half, then inserted freshmen big men Henri Veesaar and Dylan Anderson along with freshman wing Filip Borovicanin in the final three minutes.
Arizona led 44-32 at halftime, but Cal’s Sam Alajiki hit a 3-pointer 18 seconds into the second half to cut the Wildcats’ lead to single digits. Arizona didn’t go up by 20 until the final five minutes.
UA led just 62-50 with 9:05 to go before Ramey made a 3-pointer and Kriisa fed Tubelis for a layup that gave the Wildcats a 67-50 lead. Two inside baskets from Tubelis and another from Ballo around the five-minute mark allowed UA to take a 73-53 lead. A 3-pointer from Kylan Boswell made it 78-55 with 3:34 left before Lloyd began turning deeper into his bench.
Arizona center Oumar Ballo, center, shoots over California center Lars Thiemann, left, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Berkeley, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Arizona wound up shooting 50.7% overall from the field while allowing Cal to finish at 41.7%, even though the Bears missed their first seven shots of the game.
“The defense had some lapses,” Lloyd said. “We’ve been really good defensively, and you go back and watch and I’m sure there were some areas where our effort could have been better, our execution could have been a little bit better. We’ll try to dial those things in and tighten them up for Saturday.”
In the first half, the Wildcats raced to an early 11-1 lead while Cal couldn’t find the basket and went ahead 18-3 after Henderson blocked a shot from Alajiki, leading to a dunk from Larsson.
“We always want to get off to a good start,” Lloyd said. “I want to enter these games throwing haymakers. We’re not trying to feel our way into these games, and I was really happy that our guys came out and played with good effort and energy early.”
It was there early, but then the Wildcats’ energy appeared only on and off. Maybe because when the Wildcats started to go up big against their woeful opponent, it was easy to take a breather mentally.
But that’s no excuse to Henderson.
“The greats don’t do it,” Henderson said. “The good teams, the teams that want to do what we want to do, can’t do that.”
McKale Center was built at the University of Arizona in the early 1970s. There have been updates through the years.
