Arizona men’s basketball needed one last surge to shake off a pesky Boise State team when the Wildcats were up two possessions late in the second half.
In came a flying Ryan Anderson, who delivered a deafening dunk over a Broncos defender.
Next, Anderson pointed to his right bicep. He and everyone else in McKale Center knew the Wildcats would muscle this one out.
In an uncharacteristically high-scoring affair, No. 12 Arizona topped Boise State 88-76 in McKale Center on Thursday night. The victory moves the Wildcats to 3-0 this season and extends Arizona’s home winning streak to 41 games — the longest in the country.
Gabe York led Arizona with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Anderson added eight points and a team-high 15 rebounds.
“I believe we did about as well as we are capable of, at least in early November, against a formidable team,” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. “This was really the first, what I would call ‘real game,’ that [we] have been in.”
Arizona struggled to put any distance between itself and the Broncos for much of the night, as Boise State looked ready to respond at almost every turn.
Boise State, fueled by 27 points from forward James Webb III and another 21 from Nick Duncan, held tight until the game’s final stretch.
The Wildcats led by a slim 75-71 margin with 6:18 remaining.
Playing in front of a raucous Thursday-night crowd, Arizona then went on an 11-3 run to push the lead to double digits with 3:33 left. Anderson’s dunk provided the dagger.
Overall, Arizona shot 54 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Broncos 39-31.
Both Boise State and Arizona scored the ball effectively from the start, as the teams combined for five 3-pointers in the first five minutes.
York got things going early on by knocking down a pair of shots from outside. The senior guard went on to make 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. He also made all five of his free throw attempts.
“I felt good,” York said. “I try and feel good every night, but tonight the ball decided to fall in for me. Everyone did a good job of trying to find me, and when I took a bad shot no one was upset because I think I shot the ball pretty well tonight.”
Facing a Boise State zone defense, Arizona resorted to the perimeter early on. Eight of the Wildcats’ first 10 shot attempts came from behind the arc.
Arizona eventually settled down, but the up-tempo style of play went against Miller’s usual preference of a more deliberate pace.
“When you play a team like Boise, you can sometimes get caught up in their game, and we did,” Miller said. “That’s the inexperience.”
Sophomore Parker Jackson-Cartwright played a key role in keeping Arizona’s offense flowing by exploiting space in the half-court and running fast-break transitions.
On multiple occasions, Jackson-Cartwright snuck and spun by taller defenders on his way to the hoop. One spinning layup at the end of the first half set McKale Center alive and gave Arizona a 44-42 lead heading into intermission.
“I realized there would be space to get into the lane very early,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “Boise State really likes to push the tempo and I think that’s what we as a team, and [I] personally, do best.”
The sophomore split time at point guard with Kadeem Allen, who finished with 10 points and a team-high six assists.
From here, Arizona has a few days off before it faces Northwestern State on Sunday evening.
The Demons, who hail from Natchitoches, Louisiana and compete in the Southland Conference, enter the weekend with an 0-3 record.
They should provide Arizona another warmup opponent before the Wildcats travel to Anaheim, California on Nov. 29 for the Wooden Legacy.
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