It was maybe a little too close for comfort, but Arizona avoided falling into a 3-game slide with a 68-64 win against Utah.

The Wildcats blew a 13 point lead from early in the second half, as Utah tied it up at 51 with 7:28 left.

But the Wildcats (21-4, 9-4 Pac-12) outscored the Utes 15-10 the rest of the way to close it out.
Mark Lyons paced the Wildcats with 18 points and five assists, but also committed five turnovers and shot 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

Arizona head coach Sean Miller adjusted the lineup a little bit, inserting Kevin Parrom into the starting lineup and bringing freshman forward Brandon Ashley off the bench.

At least for the time being, the move looks to have been smart. Parrom had seven points, nine rebounds and three assists while Ashley added 10 points, four rebounds and three steals off the bench.

Arizona, notoriously slow to start out games, and sometimes even second halves, did a little bit better on Sunday.

In the second half, Arizona burst out with a 10-3 run to open the half and made six of its first nine shots. But, then the Wildcats proceeded to miss seven of its next nine and Utah used a 16-5 run over the next five minutes to knot the game up for the first time since the game started.

Utah sixth man Jeremy Olsen scored six points in that spurt, and finished with a career-high 12 points on the day.

Arizona bounced back in the end, though, thanks to Parrom and Lyons. The duo from New York scored the Wildcats final 13 points.

Jarred Dubois scored 16 points to lead the Utes, and Jason Washburn added 15. But, Nick Johnson shut down stud freshman Jordan Loveridge, as he scored five points on 1-of-9 shooting.

Johnson had four steals but only scored four points. As a team, Arizona committed 12 turnovers, against 15 assists and outrebounded Utah 34-32.

Solomon Hill had 10 points and eight rebounds, and Kaleb Tarczewski added nine points and four boards.

Up next for the Wildcats is Washington at McKale Center on Wednesday at 9 p.m.