After nearly beating Kansas in the NCAA Tournament’s first round last season with his uniquely aggressive style of defense, Samford coach Bucky McMillan could hardly find any high-major teams willing to play him.
“It’s so hard,” McMillan said. “We found two.”
Because it had a mid-December hole in its schedule, Arizona became one of those two teams. But as it turned out, in the Wildcats' 96-64 win over the Bulldogs on Wednesday at McKale Center, both teams received pretty much what they were looking for.
The Wildcats managed to break the Bulldogs’ press and switching defenses, especially in the first half, while UA coach Tommy Lloyd also had a chance to experiment again with his rotation.
Lloyd started Anthony Dell’Orso at shooting guard for the first time, experimented with freshman Carter Bryant at power forward and pulled Emmanuel Stephen from a possible redshirt season by inserting the freshman 7-footer late in the game.
Meanwhile, Samford (9-3) stiffened its defense in the second half while sharpening itself up for a Southern Conference race it is expected to win.
"The good thing is for them is they still won by a lot, so it’s good for their NET, but we appreciate the game," McMillan said. "The opportunity to get out here is good for our guys.”
And, individually, UA guard Caleb Love grabbed the opportunity to try to step out of a nearly season-long slump in the friendly McKale atmosphere. He scored 23 points on 7-for-14 shooting while taking a season-high eight trips to the free throw line.
“Thank god,” said Love, who averaged 13.3 points and was shooting 36.6% entering Wednesday’s game. “Just seeing the ball go through the hoop was a great feeling.”
Arizona guard KJ Lewis (5) takes stab at stealing the ball form Samford center Riley Allenspach (35) in the first half in their pre-conference season game, Tucson, Ariz., December 18, 2024.
So Wednesday offered a little bit for everyone, including the fans at McKale Center, many of whom arrived to watch popular former Wildcat guard T.J. McConnell become inducted into the UA Ring of Honor before the game.
While evening its record up to 5-5 entering a final nonconference game Saturday against Central Michigan, the Wildcats generally demonstrated a more secure, resilient approach than they showed in a 57-54 loss on Dec. 14 against a UCLA team that values defense in similarly intense, though different, fashion.
For the game, UA wound up shooting 58.2% from the field and outrebounded Samford 42-23. The Wildcats had 14 turnovers that led to 14 Samford points, but scored 23 points off Samford's 12 turnovers.
Arizona also wound up with a 48-20 advantage in the paint, shaking off its typically below-average 3-point shooting (31.8%), and outscored Samford 37-12 in fast-break points.
“We wanted to make them not have all their points at the rim but it’s tough because of their size,” McMillan said. “The difference between high-majors and low majors is size. And when they’re cleaning the glass like they are and they’re able to get that ball out in transition, it’s a problem.”
Five Wildcats scored in double figures, with Dell’Orso and Townsend adding 14 points each, and Townsend also collecting eight rebounds. Point guard Jaden Bradley had 11 points and six assists while KJ Lewis bulldozed his way to 11 points in part by getting to the line for 7-for-7 free throw shooting.
Love also found his way to the line far more often than he has all season. Having taken just 12 free throws total over the Wildcats’ previous nine games, Love hit 6 of 8 free throws Wednesday. He took all eight free throws in the first half, when he totaled 17 points.
Returning home after losing five of their seven previous games, the Wildcats were most effective early. Love hit a 3-pointer on UA’s first possession and the Wildcats took a 13-9 lead into the first media timeout, having made 5 of 9 shots and with assists setting up each one. They also did not turn the ball over once during that span.
That was a marked contrast to the team that gave up 22 turnovers against UCLA that led to 27 Bruin points.
“A little bit of difference between the two teams, but they’re both very aggressive,” Townsend said of UCLA and Samford. “It just came down to being fundamentally sound, (which) we worked on a lot this week, and just being tough with the ball.”
Arizona’s ballhandling, and overall game, slipped slightly in the second half. Up by 23 at halftime, Arizona led by just 14 six minutes into the second half after Samford scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer from Collin Holloway.
UA committed six turnovers over a three-minute span late in the second half that helped the Bulldogs cut it under 20 points with just under five minutes left.
“We were able to handle the press and the other thing you’ve got to handle is the changing defenses,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I thought our guys did a good job for the most part, because you can’t really get into rhythm calling sets, so you’ve got to rely on concepts and fundamentals.
“Obviously, in the second half, we kind of lost our way a little. They do that to teams – they wear them down a little bit.”
Still, the Wildcats went ahead 88-61 with 2:38 left in the game, after Henri Veesaar stole the ball, leading to a pair of free throws from KJ Lewis. That was enough of an advantage that Lloyd inserted Stephen, after having said on Tuesday he might not insert him in the thick of a game against a difficult team like Samford.
Just 26 seconds later, Stephen dunked off an alley-oop feed from backup point guard Conrad Martinez, though the energetic freshman committed two fouls over the next minute.
“Heck of a tip-in,” Lloyd said. “He’s ready and we’re going to see how this works. … When you see him, your eyes are on him, right? There’s always something happening.”
