On Saturday, Dec. 6, the No. 2 Arizona men’s basketball team clobbered No. 21 Auburn University 97-68 in McKale Center. The dominating win is the largest margin of victory over a ranked opponent in program history since the 39-point victory in 2002 against Western Kentucky University.
Shooting the lights out
Arizona shot a season best 61% from the floor and 40% (6-for-15) from beyond the arc. The Wildcats did not stop there and controlled the game down low, outscoring Auburn 60-24 in points in the paint.
UA’s 61.2% is the best field goal percentage against a ranked opponent since 2016, when the Wildcats lost to No. 23 University of Oregon. The last time Arizona won when shooting better than 60% against a ranked program was back in 2007, on the road against the University of Washington.
Double-digit party
The Wildcats had five players score in double figures for the first time since the 103-73 victory over the University of Denver on Nov. 24.
Freshman phenom Koa Peat led the team with 18 points, followed by fellow freshman sensation Brayden Burries with a career-high 16 points. Veteran guard Jaden Bradley also had 16 points, followed by Ivan Kharchenkov with 12 points. Rounding out was sharpshooter Anthony Dell’Orso, dropping 11 points in 20 minutes.
Peat shot 8-for-11 from the floor and also tagged along five assists, four rebounds and two steals. Burries finished with five rebounds to go hand-in-hand with Bradley’s four assists and four boards. Kharchenkov impacted multiple areas of the game, dishing out eight assists, hauling in five rebounds and coming away with three takeaways.
Spreading the wealth
Arizona finished with a season-high 23 assists compared to Auburn’s seven. The 23 assists allowed the Wildcats to get the bench involved often and early, using the depth to their advantage over the Tigers. UA outscored Auburn’s bench 27-6, a huge advantage for Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd’s squad, which played a big factor throughout Saturday’s game.
Taking off
Early in the first half, the Tigers led 15-10 after a deep 3-pointer from Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford. After that point, Arizona went on a 12-0 scoring run and led the entire game.
The suffocating defense on the perimeter from Arizona forced the team to settle for long and contested jumpers. When Auburn would get to the rim, the elite rim protection from the Wildcats’ frontcourt made it extremely difficult for the Tigers to generate any points in the paint.
At the end of the first half, Auburn went on an 8-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to 44-32. However, in the first 4 minutes of the second half, the Wildcats went on an electric 16-2 run, firing up the crowd in McKale Center after Kharchenkov rattled in a deep 3-pointer to push the lead 60-34.
Auburn forward KeShawn Murphy ended the Arizona run by laying in 2 points, but the avalanche was too much for the Tigers to handle, as Auburn’s body language showed that the game was already out of reach, not even 6 minutes into the half.
Defense to offense
Despite the No. 2 team finishing with eight steals on the night, the Wildcats capitalized on the transition, outscoring the Tigers 19-13 in fastbreak points and forcing 21 points off of Auburn’s 15 turnovers.
Arizona limited Auburn to just 33.3% shooting, the lowest by a ranked team since UCLA in 2023. Marking the third time in the Lloyd era, Arizona held a Top 25 team under 35% shooting.
“We want to hang our hat on being a great defensive team,” Lloyd said postgame.
Follow the Daily Wildcat on Instagram and Twitter/X
