Arizona men’s basketball got its first conference road win of the season with a 75-70 win over Stanford in Palo Alto, California Wednesday night. The victory keeps the Wildcats undefeated in Pac-12 play and is their fifth win in a row. Here are five stats from the game that led to Arizona’s close win.
12 points
It looked like Ira Lee was going to have a rough game after picking up three fouls early in the first half, but the sophomore shook it off to have his best game of the season finishing with 12 points.
Lee scored 8 of his 12 in the first half in relief of Chase Jeter who was dealing with his own foul trouble, including a couple of rim-rocking dunks. However, the forward’s most important contribution came in the final minute of the game.
RELATED: Game recap – Lee leads ‘Cats to road victory against Stanford
With Arizona only up 69-68 in a back-and-forth battle against the Cardinal, Lee made a driving layup off an assist from Justin Coleman with 41 seconds remaining. Next possession, Stanford missed a jumper, Lee got the rebound then went to the free throw line to seal the deal for the ‘Cats.
5 fouls
Jeter has been an integral part of Arizona’s game plan, both offensively and defensively this season, but he wasn’t a major factor against Stanford. Picking up two fouls in the first seven minutes of the game, Jeter only played five minutes in the first half. The 6-11 center came back into the lineup in the second half and continued to find himself in trouble, eventually fouling out with just over two minutes left in the game.
In his absence, Miller relied on Lee to pick up crucial minutes as well as Ryan Luther and Emmanuel Akot. Luther contributed 10 points on 4-9 shooting during his 23 minutes of play, while Akot had two points and three rebounds in 13 minutes on the court.
16 free throws
A total of 43 fouls were called during the game – 22 against Arizona, 21 against Stanford – which meant free throw shooting became important down the stretch. The ‘Cats made 16 of their 18 from the line, while the Cardinal struggled throughout, only making 15 of 26.
Over the final 10 minutes of the second half, Arizona made an impressive 10-11 from the charity stripe and Stanford only converted 2-6 chances.
30:09
The ‘Cats led for 30:09 of the game including almost the entirety of the first half. Despite trailing the majority of the night, Stanford opened up the second half on a strong note and rode the stretch of momentum to grab a 50-44 lead at 12:42.
Arizona then went on an extended 14-2 run to retake the lead and never gave it back.
Bonus:
18
The win keeps one of Arizona’s best winning streaks alive as the team has now beaten Stanford 18 games in a row and haven’t lost to the Cardinal since Miller became head coach.
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