Arizona men’s basketball forward Azuolas Tubelis attempts a layup on Dec.13, 2022 in McKale Center. The Wildcats won against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi by a score of 99-61.
Thursday night in McKale Center, Azuolas Tubelis scored 40 points, which is the most scored by a Wildcat since 1995 when Damon Stoudamire had 40 points against Washington State University.
The Arizona men’s basketball team defeated the University of Oregon 91-76. This win comes after the Wildcats lost to the Ducks in Eugene when they last played on Jan. 14.
“Shots went in, I had a lot of points and I have to give credit to my teammates,” Tubelis said.
Tubelis is now tied for sixth on Arizona’s all-time single-game scoring list. He scored the most points in McKale Center since Khalid Reeves scored 40 points in the 1993-94 season. Tubelis is also the first Arizona player to score at least 35 points since Jerryd Bayless in 2008.
“Zu [Tubelis] was spectacular tonight, the way the ball was coming off his hand tonight was something special and you don’t see it every day,” head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “It’s like a pitcher having a no-hitter, we are playing the game, trying to win the basketball game, I don’t need to know about records.”
He finished the game 16-21 from the field and 8-9 from the free-throw line while having nine rebounds, three assists and three steals. The previous career scoring high for Tubelis was 32 points. This is also the second time this season that he has had 30 points and the fourth in his Wildcat career.
Someone that Tubelis has been compared to is Domantas Sabonis, who Lloyd coached at Gonzaga. Sabonis is currently on the Sacramento Kings, where he recently made his third NBA All-Star team.
“I mean, [they’re] obviously Lithuanian, lefty men of few words. There’s definitely some similarities,” Lloyd said. “I don’t think it’s fair at this point to compare Zu [Tubelis] just because you look at Domantas in the NBA and he’s an all-star. I definitely know in my mind Zu’s an NBA player. I’ve coached enough of them; he is an NBA player and the way he moves and runs and, just that the effortlessness he can play with, you know, at a high level was pretty special.”
With this win, Arizona moved to 20-3 on the season while being 9-3 in Pac-12 play. Since the Wildcats lost to Oregon, they are on a five-game winning streak.
Arizona was excellent at shooting the ball as they were about 53% (31-58) from the field, 43% (10-23) on 3-point shots and 86% (19-22) from the foul line. This is the second consecutive game for the Wildcats shooting at least 50% from the field, 40% from deep and 80% from the free throw line.
Oumar Ballo had his ninth double-double of the season with 10 points while adding 11 rebounds. For the third straight game, Kerr Kriisa shot the ball at least 50% from deep. He was four for eight on 3-point shots against the Ducks. He also totaled 13 points and seven assists.
Arizona faces off against Oregon State University on Saturday night in McKale Center. Arizona beat them by 12 points when they played a few weeks ago.
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