Arizona Wildcats dominate glass, crush Old Dominion 102-44 at McKale Center

The Arizona Wildcats made over half their field goals on Saturday at McKale Center and, truthfully, it didn’t even matter that much.

Because whenever the Wildcats happened to miss during their 102-44 destruction of Old Dominion, they simply just picked up the ball and put it back in, then deployed suffocating defense on the other end of the floor.

By the time UA began substituting heavily with just over five minutes to go in what became the biggest margin of loss in Old Dominion history, the Wildcats had already scored 23 second-chance points off 24 offensive rebounds.

Since Arizona had made 35 of 69 field goals at that point, that translated to an absurd 70.6% offensive rebounding percentage, or nearly double what national champion UConn recorded last season with a 38.4 mark that was second best in Division I.

"I love offensive rebounding," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "Offensive rebounding is a great insurance policy for offenses. It's always gonna be a staple of what we do. I think we have great potential with our depth inside and some of our athletic wings to be a great offensive rebound team."

Tennessee transfer Tobe Awaka, starting again at center while Motiejus Krivas continues to work his way back from a foot injury, was in the middle of all this destruction. Awaka tied his career high in scoring (18 points) while setting a new one in rebounding (15), often putting his own misses back in the basket over the hapless Monarch interior.

While the Wildcats shot 50.7% overall from the field, including 36.4% from 3-point range, that might not be as easy to accomplish in their big games ahead, starting Friday at Wisconsin, continuing on Nov. 22 against Duke and all the way through a potentially brutal Big 12 schedule.

But the sort of defense the Wildcats flashed Sunday could also prove another form of insurance for that journey. Finishing with a 59-28 overall rebounding advantage over their Sun Belt Conference opponent, the Wildcats actually pulled down 35 defensive rebounds on 39 ODU misses — while holding ODU to just 31.6% shooting and scoring 23 points off 18 ODU turnovers.

"We have good length and good athletes, and rebounding is something we harp on every day," Lloyd said. "If you're not in a lot of rotations defensively, your positioning is between your man and the basket so it's easy to cut them out or get a good block-out and you have inside position on the glass. Those kinds of details stack up."

But rebounding also takes energy to execute so, after noting that Old Dominion picked up 22 offensive rebounds in its one-point loss to Buffalo on Monday, Lloyd made sure they had some.

"Just get everything," Awaka said of his rebounding mentality. "Coach has been sort of harping on us about rebounding with two hands. Going with one hand is OK but guys are swiping and hanging on your body, so it's just making sure you go up with two hands forcefully and try to bring the ball down."

While Awaka soaked up the minutes and rebounds, the Wildcats had help everywhere else on the floor.

Power forward Henri Veesaar added 10 points and nine rebounds while the Wildcats’ perimeter received more production from reserve newcomers Anthony Dell’Orso (11 points) and Carter Bryant (12), who struggled against Canisius. Both Dell'Orso and Bryant hit two 3-pointers and added four assists.

Another newcomer, Oakland transfer Trey Townsend, added nine points on 4-for-6 shooting after scoring only two points against Canisius.

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"Their first (game) they weren't great and I got on them about that," Lloyd said of his new guys. "We're still trying to figure out how we might want to rotate things and it might not be the same every game. But once they settled in, they were a lot better.

"It was good to see Carter have a little success. It's good to see Delly make a few shots. He's shot the ball incredibly well ever since he's been with us."

Together, the Wildcats (2-0) handed Old Dominion (0-2) its biggest loss margin ever, the previous being a 46-point margin in an 111-65 loss to Florida Christian in 1956.

"They kicked our asses," Old Dominion coach Mike Jones said. "I told my team, for a team that has aspirations to play for the national championship, to play two halves of basketball as hard as they did, with the execution they had, you've got to take your hat off to all those young me and the coaching staff."

After taking a 50-21 halftime lead, Arizona continued crushing Old Dominion on the glass and defensively in the second half. The Wildcats went on a 14-2 run that extended their lead to 55 points — 87-32 — when Dell’Orso threw in an open 3-pointer from the left wing with 7:40 left.

In the first half, guard Caleb Love led Arizona in scoring with 10 points while the Wildcats built a 50-21 halftime lead.

UA held Old Dominion to just 31.0% shooting before halftime and scored 13 points off 10 Monarch turnovers, while putting together a nearly impenetrable attack on the other end: The Wildcats shot 48.7% from the field and scored 18 second-chance points off 14 offensive rebounds.

On what became an almost typical sort of exchange, Townsend broke away for a fast break layup with 2:01 left in the first half — but when he missed, the trailing KJ Lewis picked it off the rim and dunked it in to give UA a 47-17 lead.

The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 11-0 start and were up 13-2 at the first media timeout, when the Monarchs had made only 1 of 9 field goals and turned the ball over three times. 

It was the sort of defense that carried the Wildcats easily Saturday and Awaka hopes they can do the same all season.

"Going into the Big 12, defense is going to be really key for us," Awaka said. "Offensively, we know we're talented. But defensively, to win games on the road, in those tough environments, we have to be sound defensively."

Photos: University of Arizona roughs up Old Dominion 102-44