The Arizona Wildcats defeated the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners by a score of 85-60 moving to 4-0 on the season and their second win in three days. It was also Arizona’s second straight victory of 25 or more points.

This was the most efficient Wildcat performance from the free throw line as they were 19-21 (92.3) compared to 19-31 (61.3%) last game against NAU. They also had five players score in double digits; there were only three guys who did that last game. Jemarl Baker Jr. scored 15 points tonight, continuing his hot streak and bringing him to 48 points scored over the last two games. He is 10-16 in that timespan on three-pointers, compared to being 2-9 from deep in his first two games of the season.

“The offense we run is passing and getting the whole team involved,” said Terrell Brown Jr. “We are an unselfish team, and that’s why I have been working with Jason [Terry] after practice. That’s what [Baker] does. He is not just a shooter, he’s a scorer, and he can do it all.”

Freshman Dalen Terry didn’t get off to the best start to the season as he scored a combined 17 points, but tonight he changed that as he recorded 10 points, three assists and two steals.

“Dalen Terry is a pass-first player, looking to get his teammates involved,” said head coach Sean Miller. “I’ve been really impressed with his work ethic. He is in the gym between 6-7 a.m. with Jason Terry four to five days a week.”

RELATED: Career night from Jemarl Baker Jr. helps Arizona blow past NAU

The Wildcats only turned the ball over 10 times tonight, which is a big improvement from 15, 16 and 12 in their prior three games. They also only had three players with three fouls compared to the last game in which multiple Wildcats had four or more fouls.

“Our team has played with an edge to us; we play nine quality players,” Miller said. “We still very much are a work in progress. … We are moving in a positive direction. We are better today than we were a week ago,” Miller said. “Right now, our guys are playing a good brand of basketball. We seem to make less of those mistakes and errors through more games played.”

Bennedict Mathurin and Brown had very good games and huge improvements from past games. Mathurin scored 15 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists while Brown scored 16 points and six assists.

In other news, freshman Kerr Kriisa arrived back in Tucson about a week ago but still is awaiting clearance from the NCAA to be able to play in games.

“He can be cleared by the end of the week,” Miller said about Kriisa.

Miller mentioned after the game that he was referring to Kriisa being cleared for COVID-19 protocols but has no update on his NCAA eligibility waiver. He was seen around the team and on the bench during tonight’s game.

The Arizona Wildcats finish their four games over a seven-day stretch with UTEP, who come to Tucson on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m. MST.

Editor’s note – If you haven’t already, go check out our new podcast: Hoops – The Daily Wildcat Basketball Podcast. You can go listen to our trailer episode now on Spotify and the first episode will debut early next week. It is only on Spotify right now but will be on all streaming platforms in the coming weeks. 

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