Arizona men’s basketball center Oumar Ballo dunks a ball on Thursday, Jan. 19, in McKale Center. The Wildcats won 81-66 against USC.
After a rough stretch for Arizona men’s basketball over the course of the last two weeks, where they suffered two losses in a three game span, it is safe to say on Thursday night they seemed to return to the Wildcats we saw the first part of the season.
The Wildcats defeated the USC by a score of 81-66 in McKale Center. Arizona moved to 16-3 overall and 5-3 in Pac-12 play.
Five Wildcats finished the game with double digits in scoring.
Pelle Larsson has struggled throughout the season and head coach Tommy Lloyd decided to make a change to the starting lineup. Lloyd put Cedric Henderson into the starting group in place of Larsson. This is a role that Larsson is very familiar with as he is the reigning Pac-12 sixth man of the year.
Larsson had one of his best games of the season. He scored 15 points on 4-7 shooting from the field while having three assists and three rebounds.
“I just felt our bench needed something a little more consistent,” Lloyd said. “And he gives us some versatility playing the three or four.”
Arizona’s best player, Azuolas Tubelis had a double double last night while scoring 15 points along with 17 rebounds.
Arizona won by 15 points last night, which is the most points that they have won a game by since Dec. 22 against Morgan State University.
The Wildcats were on fire from 3-point range as they were 50% (12-24). Courtney Ramey made five of the team’s 11 3-pointers. He totaled 16 points to lead the team in scoring against USC.
Arizona out-rebounded USC 43-36 overall in this contest with the help of Tubelis, leading the way with 17 of them.
“I’m assuming Saturday we’ll stick with what we did today, it wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction,” Lloyd said. “I thought it was the best thing for the team at the time, and it looks like it worked out, so I’ll probably do it again.”
This Saturday at noon on ABC, No.5 UCLA come to Tucson to face the Wildcats in a 2022 Pac-12 tournament championship rematch.
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