After Jimmer Fredette lit up Arizona for a McKale Center record 49 points last year, improvement is the Wildcats letting Fredette score 33 points today.

But 33 points scored by the Brigham Young University guard, obviously, also shows that the Wildcats have a long way to go.

Falling to the No. 21 Cougars 87-65 Saturday night at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Wildcats (8-2) were brought down to earth, and hard.

Fredette scored 20 points in the first half, and though Arizona brought the game to 13 points early in the second half, the Wildcats couldn’t establish their man defense nor figure out the Cougars 2-3 zone to make any significant push.

The Cougars used the zone defense to control forward Derrick Williams and force the Wildcats to shoot jump shots. They did shoot and they often missed, finished the first half with 28 percent shooting from the field.

Poor offensive movement and turnovers leading to Cougar points put the Wildcats behind 44-25 at half.

Williams had 10 points by halftime, but only scored three after the intermission.

Arizona mounted a comeback behind point guard Momo Jones’ 10 points early in the second half. The lead was cut to 13, 59-46, on a Jesse Perry offensive rebound and score with 12:10 remaining.

But the Wildcats would get no closer.

Jones didn’t score in the first half, but he scored 20 points in the second half. He shot 4-for-5 behind the 3-point line during that span.

Overall, Arizona shot 35 percent from the field and an ugly 6-for-21 on 3-pointers. Meanwhile, the Cougars shot 50 percent for the game.