Zone, team depth helped Cats claw back vs. Boilermakers

INDIANAPOLIS — Despite starting for three seasons at North Carolina and starring in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Caleb Love has been open to change so far at Arizona this season.

Over the Wildcats’ first eight games, when they vaulted into the No. 1 ranking, the senior guard showed it individually — becoming a better defender, ballhandler and slightly more efficient shooter while deferring to teammates when necessary.

“I love him in our program,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “He’s been nothing but a joy to coach on a daily basis.”

In Arizona’s 92-84 loss to No. 3 Purdue on Saturday, Love became part of a more collective flex.

He combined mostly with reserve guards Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis while the Wildcats deployed a 2-3 zone defense for the first time this season that put UA back in a game it trailed by up to 15 points early in the second half.

Love said the Wildcats had worked on the zone in every practice but hadn’t yet pulled it out in a game. It became necessary to try it, Love said, after the Wildcats’ initial game plan to stop Purdue star center Zach Edey led to a rain of perimeter shots from the Boilermakers guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith.

“We weren’t trying to be disrespect their guards, but we wanted to make Edey pass out to their guards and make them make plays — and that’s exactly what they did,” Love said. The zone was about “just throwing them a different look. They were rolling. In the first and second half, they had a little stretch where they were scoring a lot of buckets.

“So just throwing that zone at ’em that definitely helped. We created a lot of turnovers and a lot of tough shots for them.”

Arizona trailed 67-52 with 15:09 left in the game when Lloyd began experimenting with the zone, benching Kylan Boswell while putting Bradley in with his four other starters. He later swapped Lewis for Pelle Larsson on the wing.

Before long, Arizona had put together an 11-0 run. Purdue uncharacteristically coughed up turnovers that led to the Wildcats’ final six points of the stretch, with Bradley capping the run with a steal that led to a fast-break dunk from Oumar Ballo.

The Wildcats wound up outscoring Purdue 18-8 during the nearly 10 straight minutes Bradley was on the floor during that stretch, while Lewis played six-plus minutes within that stretch when UA cut Purdue’s lead from 11 to six points.

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Boswell sat out nearly 10 minutes while UA made its run, then played most of the final five, finishing with a season-low six points.

“We’ve got great depth overall and we need to rely on that,” Lloyd said. Bradley and Lewis “have impacted every game they’ve played in and they were really good in that stretch in the in the second half … when we were on the ropes a little bit and we dug back in … KJ and Jaden, were a big part of that.”

Lloyd’s distribution of minutes suggests Love was a big part of it, too. Because he never left the floor in the second half.

Love wound up with a season-high scoring effort of 29 points on 9-for-19 shooting, making 3 of 9 3-pointers and hitting all seven free throws he took. He also had six rebounds, two steals, a block and three assists to one turnover.

“He played an incredible game that is probably not being talked about enough, but he gave us a chance,” Lloyd said. “I mean, he was nails down the stretch of that game and he kind of actually kind of kept us in there in the first half when we started to struggle a little bit. Great player.”

Love filled the box score the way Arizona needed him to. It wasn’t enough to overcome Purdue, which had flexed in its own way by leaning on Loyer (27 points) and Smith (26 points) on a day when Edey was held slightly below his scoring and percentage averages.

But maybe it will be next time. And Love is pretty sure there will be a next time.

“These games we want to get better from,” Love said. “Even though we lost, we can learn from it. I expect to see them in March and I feel like it’s gonna be a different result.”

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Photos: No. 1 Arizona falls to No. 3 Purdue 92-84 in Indianapolis