Oumar Ballo helps power Arizona Wildcats to 91-65 win over California at McKale Center

By the time the Pac-12 Networks’ broadcast from McKale Center blinked out for about seven minutes of second-half action Thursday, it didn’t really matter.

Oumar Ballo and the Arizona Wildcats were already well en route to a 91-65 win over California that kept the Wildcats atop the Pac-12's race, with the sort of look they flashed during their 8-0 start to the season and, they hope, with the same sort of look they will finish the season with.

Ballo had a season-high 22 points and 13 rebounds, while Arizona shot 50.8% from the field and recorded assists on 21 of their 33 made field goals while moving to 16-5 overall and 7-3 in the Pac-12.

“I feel like we’re getting that rhythm back that we had in the beginning,” said freshman guard KJ Lewis, who added 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting. “We getting that joy back, that competitive nature back again.

“You know, it’s February. It’s time to kick things up a notch.”

It’s February. And, for a night at least, it was almost like November, when the Wildcats are undefeated under UA men's basketball coach Tommy Lloyd.

Ballo was the biggest example. The Wildcats’ big man took advantage of opportunities his well-organized teammates gave him, finishing with a season-high 22 points on perfect 8-for-8 field goal shooting and 13 rebounds and flashing the sort of dominance he did early last season.

The double-double was Ballo’s sixth of the season and third in UA’s past six games, as well as the 21st of his career. The 22 points was the most Ballo scored since he dropped 24 on Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament last season, and the most he’s scored at McKale Center in his three seasons as a Wildcat.

“I didn’t know that,” Ballo said, attributing his production to a good workout with assistant coach Ricci Fois and hard work.

Combining Ballo's production with 15 points and five rebounds from power forward Keshad Johnson, plus determined drives to the basket from UA guards, Arizona wound up outscoring Cal 40-22 in the paint, drawing 20 fouls and shooting 21 more free throws than the Bears (8-13, 4-6).

“That’s our game plan every night,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Whether we attack the paint on penetration, post-up, transition, we love to do that. We want to establish our advantages and our guys did a good job of with that today.

“When Oumar plays with the energy and effort he has the past couple of games, we’re a different team.”

Arizona dominated inside despite Cal having well-regarded center Fardaws Aimaq and the Pac-12’s leading scorer, Jaylon Tyson, at power forward. Aimaq had 10 points on 3 for 9 shooting while Tyson had to work hard for his double-double, scoring 10 points on 5-for-14 shooting and collecting 10 rebounds.

Ballo set the tone quickly Thursday. After Love sank an 18-footer on Arizona’s first possession, the Wildcats pounded the ball inside to Ballo, who had nine of Arizona’s first 14 points, including a three-point play to give UA an early 12-3 lead.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Although the Wildcats didn’t put together quite the 20-2 early run they had over Cal en route to their 100-81 win over the Bears on Dec. 29 at Haas Pavilion, Arizona went on a 12-2 run over the middle of the first half and took leads as high as 23 points before halftime.

During the 12-2 run, Lewis and Caleb Love both hit 3-pointers while Kylan Boswell drove through the Cal defense for a layup that put the Wildcats head 29-11. They led 48-28 at halftime, when Ballo already had 11 points and eight rebounds over just 10 minutes.

Ballo added another 11 points and five rebounds in the second half, cramming all his 22 points and 13 rebounds into all of 22 minutes.

The way he described it, that was just what was needed this time.

“As I’ve told you guys before, I don’t have to score 20 points a night for our team to win,” Ballo said. “If I have a chance to score 20, I will do that. But if I don’t have it, my brothers going to have my back and they’re gonna score. The main focus is to win the game.”

After taklng their 20-point halftime lead, the Wildcats never trailed by less than 17 in the second half while riding its top eight rotation until the final five minutes, after which deep reserves Filip Borovicanin, Paulius Murauskas and Conrad Martinez entered the game.

While the Wildcats continued to put the Bears away despite going deeper into their bench, television viewers were missing out. The Pac-12 Networks broadcast winked out for about a seven-minute stretch of action, for what broadcaster Ted Robinson attributed to issues around the network's Bay area studios.

At “our production facility, apparently there’s been a power outage in the area that’s interrupted our coverage,” Robinson said, adding that “I will tell you that in terms of the outcome of the game, you didn’t miss anything.”

He had a point there. Even some fans who had a chance to witness that late action in person were walking out of McKale by then. The Wildcats were going on to win and keep tied atop with Oregon, which beat USC 78-69 later on Thursday, on the sort of roll Lloyd hopes to see for a while.

“This is February. It’s time to starting playing consistently really good basketball,” Lloyd said. “I told our guys, `In February, you’re building for March and then hopefully for April. That has to be the mindset.”

Photos: University of Arizona cruises past Cal 91-65, Pac 12 basketball