Much has been made about Arizona’s lack of a go-to scorer this season.
The Wildcats didn’t need one in an 81-72 win over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
Seven different Arizona players knocked down a shot from behind the arc, and the Wildcats (4-0) hit a season-high 14 3-pointers. They were also able to slow the Red Storm’s frenetic pace to advance to the championship game of the 2K Sports Classic. They’ll face Mississippi State today at 4:30 p.m.
Arizona trailed by six with nine minutes left in the game following a 15-2 St. John’s run, but went on a 16-2 run of its own to take a six-point lead with just over three minutes to play.
“I’m really proud of them,” head coach Sean Miller told ESPN after the game. “Believe me, we have a long way to go to be a good team … but one thing you want to see is that fight. We’re here a long way from home … but we did it.”
Arizona swingman Kevin Parrom scored six points on 2-of-8 shooting in his second game of the season and first game in his hometown since a two-month stretch that saw both his grandmother die and his mother lose a two-year battle with breast cancer.
Parrom was shot twice in his right leg and hand in mid-September while in New York to visit his mother in the hospital.
“I had different types of emotions,” Parrom told the media in New York. “It was just a matter of getting out on the floor and playing.”
Parrom knocked down his first shot attempt of the game, a 3-pointer about three minutes into the game, and took two charges on the defensive end of the floor.
Junior forward Solomon Hill led Arizona with 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists. After struggling with turnovers early in the season, Hill turned the ball over just two times on Thursday.
Arizona’s freshman guards played one of their best games of the season. Josiah Turner scored eight points on 3-of-6 shooting after not playing in Arizona’s win over Ball State on Sunday, and Nick Johnson scored 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting, which included hitting three of four shots behind the arc.
“I though some of our freshmen really stepped up,” Miller said. “We had contributions from a lot of guys.”
Turner and Johnson connected on an alley-oop to put Arizona ahead by seven with 14:44 to play in the game before St. John’s used the next five minutes to take an eight-point lead. But Johnson hit a 3-pointer to get the lead down to five and Turner picked up a steal and turned it into a dunk to cut the Red Storm’s lead to three.
St. John’s guard Nurideen Lindsey scored 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, but fouled out with 4:02 left in the game after Arizona guard Kyle Fogg drew a charge on the baseline.
Senior forward Jesse Perry added 11 points and nine rebounds, and Fogg scored 13 points on 3-of-9 shooting.
