You hear all the time about how much gets crammed into those 48-hour-or-less swings between many Pac-12 games.
This weekend, it was just enough time for the Arizona Wildcats to possibly rediscover their entire season.
After a soul-draining loss to UCLA on Thursday, with the threat of an alarming three-game losing streak facing them, the Wildcats defeated USC 81-67 while unearthing adequate defense to go along with their efficient offense, getting a double-double from the surging Dusan Ristic and welcoming Rawle Alkins back to his normal self after two off games.
And when all that was done, the Wildcats could look up and see that both UCLA and Washington lost Saturday, meaning they had at least a two-game lead in the loss column over everyone else in the Pac-12 heading into the final three weeks of conference play.
They were in charge of the conference, as expected, just when it looked like they might not be anymore.
“We can’t control that,” UA coach Sean Miller said of the rest of the conference team’s play, but what the Wildcats could control on Saturday, they did.
Arizona shot 56.1 percent from the field and made 9 of 20 3-pointers, while holding USC to 44.4 percent shooting and 6-of-19 shooting from 3-point range. The Wildcats also crushed the Trojans on the rebounding glass, 40-22 overall.
The Wildcats had four players score in double figures, receiving a double-double from Ristic of 16 points and 11 rebounds plus a significant boost from Alkins, who had struggled in their two previous games.
Alkins was a combined 4 for 20 from the field in losses to Washington and UCLA, but had 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting Saturday while making 4 of 7 3-pointers. Afterward, he insisted he was the same guy, not dealing with any physical or mental issues over his foot injury or anything, really.
“It was just repetition,” Alkins said, smiling. “I didn’t go on YouTube. I didn’t have a shooting coach.”
Arizona’s other usual double-figure scorers were all in line, too: Deandre Ayton had 18 points and seven rebounds plus some interior defense Miller raved about while Allonzo Trier had 14 points and eight rebounds. And Ristic’s effort was his fourth double-double of the season and ninth straight game in double-figure scoring.
Basically, after losing to Washington and UCLA over the previous seven days because of a broken defense and some other issues, they had it all for a change.
“This is the example of how we need to go from here,” Ristic said.
The win kept Arizona in sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 at 10-3, while the Wildcats moved to 20-6 overall. USC dropped to 17-9 and 8-5. The Wildcats’ win also snapped a two-game losing streak and kept the Wildcats from losing back-to-back home games for the first time since 2009-10.
That possibility was clearly on Arizona’s minds, and Miller said the way the Wildcats reacted said a lot about them.
If Alkins’ play didn’t say enough about his mindset, his words drove it home.
“We don’t ever lose in McKale,” said Alkins, who has only lost twice at home as a Wildcat. “To have that loss kind of hurt us.”
Sitting alone for that postgame interview Thursday following that loss, Ristic kept his head up, answered all sorts of questions about what was wrong and talked about how the Wildcats had to have more fun, be more aggressive.
Their response was clear from the start.
After two straight slow starts, the Wildcats went ahead 14-7 six minutes into the game after getting early 3-pointers from Trier and Alkins.
USC pulled back into ties at 14 and 16, but once the Trojans received back-to-back easy layups from Nick Rakocevic inside, plus another layup from Elijah Stewart that gave them a 20-18 lead, Miller called a timeout and subbed in freshman Ira Lee into the post. Lee did not play in UA’s loss to UCLA on Thursday, and Miller said he spoke with his reserve players after the UCLA loss about how important their contributions would be.
Arizona then went on a 9-2 run to take a 29-22 lead with 5:31 left before a three-point play from Chimezie Metu cut UA’s lead to 29-25 entering the final five minutes of the half. They led 37-31 at halftime.
In the second half, Arizona allowed an early 10-0 USC run that tied the game at 41 but UA went on an 8-3 run over the middle of the half to take a 61-52 lead on a layup from Ristic.
Arizona then led by as many as 19 points into the final minutes, when a euphoric tone inside McKale Center felt nearly the opposite of the atmosphere on Thursday.
Everything had changed in 48 hours, and Miller credited Ristic and fellow senior Parker Jackson-Cartwright for getting the Wildcats there.
“Both Parker and Dusan showed a lot of leadership over the past couple of days,” Miller said. “They had our team ready.”
