In front of a McKale Center crowd filled to near capacity, Arizona heads into the half leading Charleston Southern 43-39 in its first regular season game.

The Wildcats started off slow, falling behind 11-3 to open the game on 4-of-4 shooting. Buccaneer’s guard Arlon Harper had seven of those points. Harper finished the half with 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting.

Arizona shot 3-for-12 in the first eight minutes until a steal from Gabe York led to a layup from backup point guard Jordin Mayes and ignited the Wildcats. Kevin Parrom stole York stole the ball on the next play and York finished with a layup, narrowing the gap to 15-14 with 11:13 remaining.

The Buccaneers extended the lead back to six with 6:57 remaining, but after a 10-1 Wildcats run, including eight points from Mayes, the Wildcats took a 29-25 lead with 4:26 left in the half.

CSU took the lead back and were leading 37-34 with 1:49 left, but thanks to eight points from freshman forward Brandon Ashley in the last 2:11, plus a Nick Johnson three pointer with 38 seconds remaining, Arizona took a lead into the locker room.

Mayes led Arizona with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc, while Ashley had nine points on 2-of-2 shooting and 5-of-7 from the free throw line.

Despite the Wildcats size advantage, the Buccaneers outrebounded the UA 17-14.

Arizona shot 14-of-29 from the field, 6-of-14 from 3-point range and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe and had 12 assists against four turnovers.