ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Arizona Wildcats tried out that “#JustUs” motto for real Sunday, and things managed to work out pretty well.
During their 68-59 win over Boise State at the Honda Center, Arizona was only playing for third place in the Wooden Legacy tournament.
They were doing so in the house of so many good and (mostly) bad Arizona memories, but in a place that hardly looked memorable Sunday: This time, the Honda Center featured only about 2,000 people scattered around the stands.
The Wildcats were also playing without their normally durable center, Kaleb Tarczewski, whose right ankle injury suffered Thursday is starting to appear to be more than an ordinary sprain. UA coach Sean Miller said Tarczweski would receive an MRI this week, and that the team is hoping it’s more about tendons or ligaments than structural problems.
“But I believe unless something really surprises us, he will return,” Miller said.
If that all didn’t threaten to drain the Wildcats’ energy, so did this: They had to face the same Broncos they played 10 days earlier at McKale Center, while shaking off the effects of their first November loss in more than three years, on Friday against Providence.
“Anytime you’re in this type of tournament and you lose a hard-fought game like we did to Providence,” Miller said, “a lot of times the next day, you’re still feeling the effects of the loss.”
It was #JustThem.
So Arizona used a balanced offense and a much-improved defense to ward off the Broncos for a second time, getting double-figure scoring from five players. Included was 13 points off the bench from Allonzo Trier and a box-score-stuffing effort from junior guard Kadeem Allen, who had 13 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals with three turnovers.
Ryan Anderson added 11 points and seven rebounds, while Mark Tollefsen and Gabe York each had 10 as the Wildcats improved to 6-1 entering their toughest test of the nonconference season, on Saturday at Gonzaga.
Probably even more important than all that offense, though, was the fact that Arizona held Boise to just 39.6 percent shooting.
The Wildcats held Bronco shooter Anthony Drmic to just 1 of 12 from the field, while center/wing hybrid Nick Duncan had just two three-pointers and 10 total points after going 5 for 11 from beyond the arc at McKale Center on Nov. 19.
As it turned out, the video of that McKale Center game may have helped UA more than it helped Boise, because the Wildcats effectively cut out two of the Broncos’ biggest threats in Drmic and Duncan. And while James Webb III had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Broncos, that was comparatively less damage than the Boise forward did on Nov. 19 with 27 and nine.
“We already knew how skilled they were and how hard they are to defend,” Miller said. “This was our best defensive performance. Anytime you can hold them to under 60 points — it wasn’t like they were slowing the ball down — it says a lot about the commitment to that side of the ball.”
So how did they find that commitment so suddenly? Less than two days earlier, Arizona allowed Providence to shoot 50 percent from the field and helped build Kris Dunn’s player-of-the-year resume by watching him drop 10 points in the final 2:26 to make the difference.
And day before that, UA couldn’t stop Santa Clara’s Jared Brownridge from racking up 44 points and sending that Wooden first-round game into overtime before the Wildcats pulled out a 75-73 win over the then-winless Broncos.
The Wildcats changed everything while having a day off of games. A practice. A belated Thanksgiving dinner.
And, apparently, a whole lot of refocusing.
“Like coach was saying to us before the game, we needed to bring our own motivation,” Tollefsen said. “We needed our own motivation to get each other going and be locked into each other. That’s kind of what we did.”
They weren’t perfect, for sure. Arizona struggled to get away from Boise State early, and after taking a 35-26 halftime lead, only matched the Broncos’ 33 points in the second half.
Over the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Wildcats used defense to build their lead as high as 19 points. They led 57-41 with eight minutes left, having held Boise to just 5-of-14 shooting over the first 12 minutes of the second half.
But the Broncos still wouldn’t go away. They managed to cut it under 10 points with 4:27 left, thanks to a technical foul called on Anderson, who was whistled for mouthing the wrong words near the Boise State bench.
The Broncos made him pay, with both Anthony Drmic and James Webb III hitting two free throws to effectively make it a four-point play and cut UA’s lead to 62-53.
Then, with just 2:25 left, Boise State’s Lonnie Jackson hit a three-pointer to cut UA’s lead to just six points, but UA held off the Broncos and their press from there. On one possession, Allen escaped several defenders, then passed to Trier, who drove unimpeded down the baseline for a score that made it 65-57.
It wasn’t an easy finish, but few things may be this season for the Wildcats — especially early on, while Miller still toys with the lineup, players keep learning the system and Tarczewski sits out.
“We’ll take it,” Miller said. “We’re 6-1 and not where we would have been a year ago at this time. But I think that’s to be expected with so many new faces and new roles, and then you throw on top of that Kaleb not playing.
“Hopefully we can get Kaleb back and keep improving, and learning from so many things in this tournament.”
