The Arizona Wildcats put on a full display of offensive relentlessness in their win over Cincinnati. The No. 14 team in the country opened up their Maui Jim Maui Invitational gauntlet with a 101-93 win. For the third time in four games, they have scored over 100 points while scoring at least 95 in each contest. After struggling mightily on the offensive side of the ball in the second half against NKU, Cincinnati went toe-to-toe with the Wildcats in an absurd second half that saw 124 total points scored.
After trading baskets for the majority of the first 10 minutes of action, Arizona began pulling away. They frequently used their size advantage to get the ball inside to their interior scorers. Azuolas Tubelis was among the scoring threats the Wildcats utilized down low. He led Arizona with 30 points and 11 rebounds, shooting a very efficient 67 percent from the field and 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Arizona was able to capitalize on missed shots from Cincinnati through cross-court passes to their bigs who outran defenders to the basket.
Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd constructed his game plan around the strengths of his team. “We love attacking inside out,” he said. “You could see they were pressing, [with] pressure defense. I think the best way a lot of times to attack pressure defense is to go right at it. And we want to play north to south. I thought our guys did a good job for the most part.”
Another imposing interior scorer for Arizona who had his way against Cincinnati’s defense was Oumar Ballo. The 7-foot, 260-pound center enforced his will on the Bearcats’ defense throughout the game. The junior out of Mali had 21 points of his own with 10 rebounds and two assists.
He spoke on Arizona’s success early in the game. “We dominated inside in the first half and then that let our guards get a little bit free to get wide-open looks,” he said.
Among the guards who were able to take advantage of those open looks was Kerr Kriisa. In the later stages of the first half, his back-to-back 3-pointers about a minute apart from each other expanded Arizona’s advantage and sparked a 17-4 run that would give the Wildcats their largest lead of the game at 16 points with three minutes to play in the first half. Kriisa finished with 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting from the 3-point line to go along with seven assists.
Cincinnati would cut the deficit to 10 points heading into the locker room, slightly swinging momentum in their direction. After scoring 11 points in the second half against NKU, the Bearcats needed drastic improvements to their halftime adjustments in order to stay in the game.
The Bearcats started hot out of the gate. Landers Nolley II knocked down a 3-pointer following a Viktor Lakhin basket to cut into the lead. Arizona responded accordingly with eight straight points from Tubelis, opening their lead right back up to 50-35.
Cincinnati failed to get any closer to Arizona after the deficit was cut to seven early in the second half. Despite a valiant offensive effort from the Bearcats in the second half, the defense could not contain Arizona’s innate ability to score. The main reason Cincinnati was able to stay within striking distance was due in part to the shooting of Nolley. The senior guard was undoubtedly the top performer in the game for Cincinnati. He notched a career-high in points with 33 on the night that included a barrage of 3-pointers late in the second half. He shot a very efficient 12-for-18 from the field including 9 of 14 from 3-point range.
Having played in the Invitational once already, Nolley knows about the demanding schedule but feels privileged to play the best. “It’s a big turnaround for sure. Just got to go to the hotel, get some quality rest and try again tomorrow,” he said. “It’s an honor to be able to have this opportunity to play this [type of] quality of competition. It’s truly an honor and I’m happy to be here.”
Senior guard Courtney Ramey helped eliminate any chance of a Cincinnati comeback late in the second half. He finished with 17 points, four rebounds and two assists for the Wildcats. He scored 10 points in less than two minutes late in the second half to seal the victory. Ramey credited his teammates for his performance following the win. “I think we got great looks,” he said. I think when you have Oumar and Azuolas working down low it frees the guards up to get great looks.”
Even though Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller was able to implement an effective offensive game plan, he did not have an answer on defense. “They do such a good job going side to side, ball screening and playing their high to low game,” he said. “I felt like if you were in the ringer, possession in, possession out with the size differential, that was going to be difficult for us. I was hoping the press would have a positive effect on not just having to guard their stuff, I thought we could get [our press] set and not let the ball get behind us. There were times that was effective. In the second half at times it wasn’t.”
Following the loss, Cincinnati will square off against Ohio State on Tuesday. The Buckeyes dropped their first round game against No. 17 San Diego State, losing 88-77. Arizona will face the Aztecs in a matchup with both teams sporting identically perfect records, each sitting 4-0.