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No. 11 Arizona Overwhelms Wyoming in first half of 94-65 win

by arizonawildcats.com
Dec 8, 2021

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 10 rebounds, Kerr Kriisa added 17 points and No. 11 Arizona dominated Wyoming in the first half of a 94-65 win on Wednesday night.

The Wildcats (8-0) continued their run of overwhelming opponents, smothering the Cowboys (8-1) on the defensive end to set up easy baskets in transition for a 31-point halftime late.

Arizona shot 53%, made 11 3-pointers and had 23 assists for its sixth win of at least 25 points this season. The Wildcats also had a 26-point advantage in the paint and nine steals while scoring 19 points off Wyoming's 14 turnovers.

Xavier DuSell had 22 points and Graham Ike 17 to lead the Cowboys.

The game was a meeting of unexpected undefeated teams.

Arizona had several news players and a first-year coach in Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats' mix of new and old have been a perfect blend so far, playing with a similar up-tempo, free-flowing style Lloyd helped Mark Few create at Gonzaga.

Arizona entered Wednesday's game as the national scoring leader with 91.5 points per game and assisted baskets at nearly 72%.

Wyoming lost Mountain West Conference freshman of the year Marcus Williams and was picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West. The Cowboys have been good at both ends, ranking in the top 15 in shooting and shooting defense.

Wyoming was No. 12 in the NCAA's initial NET rankings after picking up road wins over Washington, Grand Canyon and Cal-State Fullerton already under their belt.

Of course, Arizona was No. 3 in the NET and proved to be the better team on this night.

The Wildcats are third nationally in average time of possession (14.3 seconds), according to KenPom, and were at their get-out-and-run best against Wyoming.

Using its defense to set up transition opportunities, Arizona left the Cowboys stuck in the desert sand with a series of dunks and 3-pointers to lead 53-22 at halftime. Kriisa set the tone with three early 3-pointers and Mathurin brought the crowd to its feet with a series of dunks, including one on an alley-oop from Dalen Terry where he almost hit his head on the rim.

Kriisa hit four of Arizona's seven 3-pointers in the first half and matched Mathurin with 14 points by halftime.

The Wildcats' defense was even better, forcing 11 first-half turnovers while holding Wyoming to 8-of-27 shooting and 1 of 12 from the 3-point arc.

The Cowboys started to find the range in the second half, making 15 of 31 shots. They still had no defensive answer for Arizona, which shot 18 of 37 to keep the lead around 30 for most of the second half.

BIG PICTURE

Wyoming got the season off to a good start, but ran into a buzz saw against Arizona. The Cowboys took an early blow and never recovered to see their undefeated season come to an end.

Another test passed by Arizona. The Wildcats overwhelmed Wyoming at both ends of the floor, showing they're just as good on defense as their highly-touted offense.

UP NEXT

Wyoming hosts Utah Valley on Saturday.

Arizona plays at Illinois Saturday.
 

 

Postgame Quotes

Wyoming head coach Jeff Linder

Opening Statement
"One of those deals where you come in on the road to play a top-10 team in the country in a tough place to play. 14,000 people, and I told our guys afterwards that there have been some really good teams that have come in here throughout the course of history and have gotten beaten up pretty good."
 
"We knew we had to withstand the early on slot. The thing about our guys is that they are not going to sneak up on anyone. When you are 8-0 and the Arizona coaching staff, with the respect that they have for our program, we knew that they were going to be ready to go. But there aren't many teams like that in the country that can come at you at that type of pace with their size and athleticism."
 
"I thought our guys did a good job of sticking together and fought in the second half and did not just put their heads down. We ran into a really good team tonight on their home court and sometimes good teams get their butt kicked so that's what happened. But we are still a good team and we are going to continue to grow and get better. Maybe sometime down the road we will see these guys again."
 
Were you expecting that many shots from deep?
"I mean, when you look at the numbers and watch them on film, you have to pick your poison. The one thing they had not done really well was shoot the ball from the three. A lot of guys are capable of making shots but not from a percentage standpoint. I have to give those guys credit, they made shots. Kriisa was coming in shooting about 33% and he came in and bangs four threes in the first half. You have to give him credit for making open shots.
 

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