ARIZONA 71, CALIFORNIA 50 FG FT Reb CALIFORNIA Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS Anticevich 24 1-6 2-2 1-3 1 2 4 Kelly 15 2-4 0-2 2-3 0 6 4 Betley 23 2-7 0-0 0-5 0 1 5 Bradley 25 7-10 2-2 0-1 1 1 21 Joe.Brown 29 4-6 1-1 0-1 0 2 10 Thiemann 21 0-0 2-4 0-2 0 0 2 Foreman 17 1-5 0-0 0-1 0 1 2 Thorpe 12 0-1 0-0 1-3 1 3 0 Celestine 10 1-4 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 Hyder 9 0-2 0-0 0-1 2 0 0 Bowser 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 Kuany 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Klonaras 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 200 18-47 7-11 4-20 8 17 50 Percentages: FG .383, FT .636. 3-Point Goals: 7-22, .318 (Bradley 5-6, Joe.Brown 1-2, Betley 1-6, Anticevich 0-1, Hyder 0-1, Kuany 0-1, Celestine 0-2, Foreman 0-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 2 (Bradley, Thiemann). Turnovers: 16 (Bradley 6, Anticevich 2, Betley 2, Hyder 2, Joe.Brown 2, Kelly, Thorpe). Steals: 3 (Celestine 2, Bradley). Technical Fouls: Kelly, 6:53 second. FG FT Reb ARIZONA Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS A.Tubelis 28 5-10 0-0 3-6 1 1 11 Koloko 24 3-6 4-7 1-6 1 2 10 Akinjo 35 7-14 4-5 1-1 8 0 20 T.Brown 24 0-2 1-2 0-5 4 3 1 Mathurin 36 4-8 0-0 0-3 1 2 10 Jor.Brown 19 5-7 2-4 2-2 0 2 12 Terry 18 3-4 0-0 1-3 1 2 7 Lee 15 0-1 0-0 0-6 1 1 0 Gorener 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Totals 200 27-52 11-18 8-32 17 14 71 Percentages: FG .519, FT .611. 3-Point Goals: 6-13, .462 (Akinjo 2-4, Mathurin 2-5, A.Tubelis 1-2, Terry 1-2). Team Rebounds: 2. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Jor.Brown 3, A.Tubelis). Turnovers: 12 (Mathurin 3, Jor.Brown 2, Lee 2, T.Brown 2, A.Tubelis, Gorener, Terry). Steals: 8 (Koloko 3, Akinjo 2, T.Brown 2, Jor.Brown). Technical Fouls: None. California 22 28 —50 Arizona 37 34 —71
When James Akinjo was a high school star in the East Bay, the Cal Bears probably knew he’d have college games like this.
They just didn’t want those games to happen against them.
But Arizona’s junior point guard first committed to UConn out of Richmond, Calif., then played for Georgetown before transferring to Arizona last season … and on Saturday led the Wildcats to an easy 71-50 romp over the Bears at McKale Center.
Akinjo had 20 points while shooting 7-for-14 from the field and accompanying his eight assists with exactly no turnovers, helping the Wildcats shake off a troubling 73-64 loss to Stanford just some 41 hours earlier.
“It had nothing to do with Cal, honestly,” Akinjo said. “I mean, it had nothing to do with the fact that they recruited me. Obviously, they recruited me because I’m a hometown kid but we just really wanted to come in and bounce back from Stanford.”
As much as UA coach Sean Miller praised Akinjo, he expressed concern that the Wildcats needed to shake off the selfishness and lack of energy that plagued them against Stanford. As a result, he called Saturday’s game the most important of the season.
“The reason is because of how we all felt leaving the Stanford game,” Miller said, still reeling over the Cardinal’s late 15-4 run. “We had a lead under the eight-minute mark of five points and we went out there and got smashed. We just broke down and gave in and we just had kind of a selfishness about us across the board.”
Arizona had no such troubles Saturday. While the game began sloppily, with UA missing four of its first five shots, the Wildcats kept the Bears scoreless for over five minutes to start the game and were never challenged.
Arizona took early leads of 10-2 and 19-7 while the Bears didn’t score until Matt Bradley hit a 14-foot baseline jumper with 14:32 to go. Cal also had six turnovers that led to five UA points over the first six minutes, while UA took a 15-point lead at halftime.
Akinjo and the Wildcats had even more fun in the second half.
Arizona led 43-28 after Akinjo hit a jumper with 17:36 left, but Christian Koloko picked up the ball from Cal’s Matt Bradley on the Bears’ next possession and tossed to Akinjo, who took off and dished a behind-the-back pass to Azuolas Tubelis as he drove the lane.
Tubelis finished with an uncontested dunk to give Arizona a 45-28 lead with 17:10 still to go.
“It was all instinctual,” Akinjo said. “It just happened so fast and I thought, ‘You know, I want to have fun out when I’m out there so my guys can have fun, too.’ ”
Not having fun on that play was the 220-pound Bradley, who tried to scoot over in time to establish a legal guarding position directly in front of Akinjo but failed and was instead pummeled directly onto the floor.
“I definitely was seeing that coming,” Akinjo said. “I tried my best to get out of the way of him as I threw the pass.”
Bradley recovered to keep playing a game in which he was actually the overall leading scorer, with 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Right after the Akinjo-to-Tubelis blur, Cal guard Joel Brown was called for traveling, and Bennedict Mathurin took off for a fast-break dunk that quickly made it 47-28. Later, two free throws and another layup from Akinjo gave UA a 52-30 lead with 13:37 left.
Cal continued its shooting struggles midway through the second half, going 2 for 12 at one point while UA built leads of up to 24 points. By the time Akinjo hit his second 3-pointer with 7:36 to go, the Wildcats led 65-38 and coasted from there.
As a team, the Wildcats shot 51.9% while outrebounding the Bears 33-23 and scoring 15 points off 16 Cal turnovers. Cal also shot just 38.3%.
While Cal dropped to 7-12 and 2-10, the win moved Arizona to 13-4 overall and 7-4 in Pac-12 play heading into a game Thursday at Utah, having cleared up a few things Miller said they were lacking against Stanford.
“Everything from scouting, to effort, to finishing, defense, offense — we just picked the wrong game not to be good in those areas,” Miller said of Thursday’s game. “We’ve addressed that, we talked about it and today, regardless of the final score, we were just overall much better and looked more like ourselves.”
The Wildcats have a couple of good signs ahead, too. They expect guard Kerr Kriisa to be eligible to play against the Utes for his first time ever, and won’t have to play a game for five days after their three-game week.
However, UA did not have forward Daniel Batcho on the sidelines Saturday. Batcho has been recovering from a knee injury and recently returned to practices, but Miller said he is now staying away from the team because he was ill.
“Because he’s not really able to play in games, if you’re not feeling well, it’s smart for Daniel and our team to allow him to be away,” Miller said.
“I’m not speaking on COVID or whatever. I’m just addressing not feeling well.”
