Because Lauri Markkanen grew up about 5,400 miles away from Arizona, basketball rivalry games could be something else.
Like when his native Finland played neighboring Sweden. Or Russia, that country on the other side. There might be a good crowd, a little tension between the neighboring players, in a sport that can fight for attention with soccer and hockey.
In other words, nothing quite like this. Before Markkanen threw down a career-high 30 points to lead Arizona over ASU 91-75 on Thursday, he entered McKale Center with a full student section repeatedly chanting and taunting Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley.
He heard what was probably the loudest McKale Center noise to date this season, even if, thanks in part to his heroics, the game was never really competitive.
“Of course we had great rivalries against Sweden and Russia, but this is the first time a crowd like this,” Markkanen said. “So of course it’s a little bit different.”
You could say he adapted pretty well. Fellow European Dusan Ristic, who has already been through four ASU games, almost singlehandedly blew the game open at the beginning, scoring nine of his 16 points in the first four minutes while UA built an early 14-2 lead.
Then Markkanen began to take over, while a few other positives happened for the Wildcats, too: Kadeem Allen put in a beyond workman-like 18 points, eight assists, four steals and four turnovers, while Kobi Simmons broke out of a brief offensive slump with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting.
While the Wildcats slumped defensively in the second half, allowing ASU to score 50 points and shoot 56.7 percent after halftime, Arizona also clobbered the Sun Devils on the glass with a 38-22 rebounding edge.
But throughout it all, Markkanen was the focal point. He hit 4 of 7 3-pointers and also pulled down eight rebounds for the Wildcats, who moved to 16-2 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-12 with the win. His scoring was the highest of any UA player this season, while the Wildcats’ 91 points matched their season high set on Jan. 1 at Stanford.
Markkanen also had no turnovers and made 2 of 4 free throws.
“I can’t believe he missed two free throws,” UA coach Sean Miller said jokingly, otherwise making it clear he had nothing but praise for his Finnish freshman. “He was spectacular. He was above and beyond a freshman. Obviously, he’s an incredible offensive player who really is improving on defense.”
Miller noted that Markkanen is even serious than he is – “you guys say I’m all business, he’s all business,” Miller said — and, in fact, Markkanen’s intensity has occasionally hurt him defensively as he ran into foul trouble while trying to improve.
That wasn’t an issue Thursday. Markkanen had only two fouls and managed to play 30 minutes, meaning he averaged a point a minute for the second straight game.
“He had 30 points in 30 minutes (against ASU) and 22 in 22 minutes against Colorado,” Miller said. “I’m thinking about playing him 40 minutes in the next game to see if he gets 40.”
Would be hard to blame Miller for trying. There was one span of a minute and 15 seconds when Markkanen played like he could have scored much, much more.
After Ristic and the Wildcats stepped on the Sun Devils right after tipoff, with Ristic’s early scoring helping Arizona take leads of 9-0 and 14-2, Arizona went ahead 20-8 on an alley-oop dunk by Rawle Alkins on a feed from Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
Then, after ASU cut it to 20-12, Markkanen hit three straight threes over that 75-second span to put UA ahead 29-12.
“The crowd got crazy and as he made the first two, coach kept making the assumption like he made two in a row so keep giving it to him,” Allen said. “So we kept looking for him and he kept knocking them down.”
After Markkanen’s third three, from the exact same spot in the right corner as his second, ASU coach Bobby Hurley called a timeout, but the Wildcats didn’t let up. They led by up to 24 points the rest of the half.
Arizona went on to a 45-25 halftime lead and after three minutes of the second half, the Wildcats slipped midway through the second. ASU cut their lead to 13 points twice, shooting 55 percent through the first 12 minutes of the half and out-rebounding the Wildcats 11-10.
The Sun Devils managed to hit 10 of 18 3-pointers after going 0 for 9 in the first half from long range.
But Arizona went back ahead 76-58 less than two minutes later, with Allen hitting an 18-footer and then grabbing a steal that led to a layup by Simmons with 6:38 left. The Wildcats took a 20-point lead, 78-58, when Alkins fed Simmons for an alley-oop layup with 5:20 and UA held on to comfortable leads the rest of the way.
Still, Miller wasn’t too comfortable. He worried that the Wildcats’ poor defensive effort in the second half might carry over into next week, when UA will play at USC and UCLA.
But at the same time, the big picture also looked pretty good for a team with only eight active scholarship players. The Wildcats were again without the suspended Allonzo Trier for the 18th game.
“We’re a confident group, we’re a confident team,” Miller said. “Sometimes we don’t finish games. We don’t have that excellent play for the entirety.”
