No. 3 Arizona (13-0, 1-0 Pac-12) leads Utah (8-5, 0-1) at halftime 30-23.

Coming off a game against Colorado where the Wildcats never lead until the overtime period, Arizona needed to jump out to a fast start against the Utes. And it did.

Five quick points by Brandon Ashley gave Arizona a quick lead and they held it until the intermission.

Ashley, the freshman starting power forward, led the Wildcats with nine first half points, including seven of the UA’s first nine. In the first three minutes, Ashley outscored Utah 7-3 all on his own and finished the half shooting 4-of-5 and added two rebounds.

Late in the half Arizona went on a 13-4 run, capped by a 3-pointer from guard Nick Johnson, to up by a game-high 10 points with 4:52 remaining. But, the Wildcats wouldn’t score again the rest of the half.

Luckily for the UA, Utah only scored one basket — a 3-pointer by freshman Jordan Loveridge — to make the score 30-23 at the half.

Loveridge led the Utes with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-4 from long range. Arizona held Utah’s leading scorer, Jarred Dubois, to just five points on 0-of-2 shooting.

Ashley, Kevin Parrom and Solomon Hill combined to score 22 of Arizona’s 30 points. Parrom had five and four rebounds, while Hill added eight points and three boards.

The Wildcats shot 11-of-32 from the field, 4-of-11 from 3-point range and outrebounded Utah 22-13 led by Kaleb Tarczewski’s five boards.

Utah shot 7-of-22 and 3-of-6 from three.