SEATTLE — Arizona coughed up 18 turnovers at ASU on Jan. 25, and the Wildcats initially continued their slippery ways early Thursday at Washington.
The Wildcats had four turnovers in just over four minutes of their 75-72 win, with all of them on bad passes — two by Dylan Smith, one by Nico Mannion and the other by Josh Green.
Arizona had six more the rest of the half — but only two in the entire second half.
That was “the biggest thing that won us the game,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “When you play Washington, especially here, you have to take care of the ball, and it's easier said than done. They use their defense to create transition opportunities. If you take out the first four minutes, we played about 36 minutes against their zone with six, which is very impressive.”
Miller said he was also impressed with UA’s defensive rebounding. The Wildcats collected 80.6% of the Huskies’ missed shots, keeping UW to just six offensive rebounds.
Taking care of the ball will also be particularly important for Arizona on Saturday in Pullman.
WSU opponents average 15.9 turnovers a game, and the Cougars have the second-best defensive turnover rate in Pac-12 games, with their conference opponents losing the ball on 21.2% of possessions.
“This Washington State group plays defense as tenaciously as that last (Tony) Bennett squad (in 2008-09), albeit in a different way,” the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s Vince Grippi wrote. “And the Cougars play with their best effort nearly every time out. That gives them a chance in most every contest, especially at home.”
At home, the Cougars are 11-2 overall and 4-1 against Pac-12 opponents, with USC the only conference team to have beaten them at Beasley Coliseum (WSU beat UCLA, both Oregon schools and ASU at home.)
C.J. Elleby had a career-high 27 points, with a game-winning stepback 3 with 5.4 seconds left, to help WSU beat the Sun Devils 67-65 on Wednesday.
After Thursday’s game, Miller complimented new WSU coach Kyle Smith, who arrived in Pullman after finding success at Columbia and San Francisco.
“Washington State is a very good team and they've had a lot of success at home," Miller said. “They have a really good coach and we respect them a great deal. I've watched them from afar and now it's up to us to hopefully take some of this momentum and bring it to the next game.”
The most obvious thing that went well for UA on Thursday, meanwhile, was the 3-point shooting of Jemarl Baker, who set a career-high with 17 points while hitting 4 of 7 3-pointers – with his last shot from about 25 feet.
“Jamal Baker was really big for us, a guy who didn't start but he can really shoot the ball,” Miller said. “I thought he has his 3-point shots were obviously timely as well.”
