After an impressive road victory over then-No. 2 Houston on Saturday, No. 2 Arizona closes its two-game trek to the Lone Star State against Baylor on Tuesday night in Waco, Texas.
The Wildcats (25-2, 12-2 Big 12) are in the driver’s seat for the Big 12 regular-season title following the win over Houston. They have responded with back-to-back victories over ranked teams — BYU and Houston — after losses to ranked squads Kansas and Texas Tech.
Arizona senior guard Anthony Dell’Orso has emerged as the team’s top offensive threat the past two games, scoring 22 points in each of the victories over BYU and Houston.
“Delly, he’s a spitfire,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said of the native of Melbourne, Australia. “I don’t know how many of you guys know Aussies, but they’ve got some you know what to them. He has a little bit of that. It wasn’t going his way for a good stretch there, and he hung with it and our guys hung with him and our staff hung with him and I just told Delly, just hang in there, it’s coming.
“If there’s little adjustments we have to make, we’ll see if we can figure them out,” the coach continued. “But we trust you and we believe in you and I don’t see any scenario where you don’t get opportunities. Our media was getting a little worried back home and I just kept telling them, guys, Delly is going to be at his best when we need him at his best. I think you’ve seen that the last two games.”
Along with Dell’Orso’s scoring, Jaden Bradley had 17 points and Ivan Kharchenkov added 16 points and nine rebounds against Houston.
As a team, Arizona boasts the highest-scoring offense in the conference in averaging 87.2 points. It also leads the league in field-goal percentage (50.4%) and rebounding (43.4 per game).
Baylor (14-13, 4-10), meanwhile, has posted solid offensive numbers despite a largely disappointing season. The Bears have the fifth-best scoring offense at 82.6 points per game and the fourth-best field goal percentage at 47.8% in the league.
Baylor is carrying some momentum into this matchup, too, with a 73-68 victory over Arizona State on Saturday ending a four-game losing skid.
Tounde Yessoufou and Obi Agbim both finished with 16 points to lead the team. Agbim delivered in the clutch, making two 3-pointers and a layup in the final 2:31 of the win.
“I’m as happy as I’ve been all year right now,” Agbim said. “Just getting back to the winning column, it brings joy to the team, and it gives us hope, hope that we needed.”
Baylor hopes to keep it rolling by pulling off an upset Tuesday. Arizona is 7-1 on the road with its lone loss coming at Kansas on Feb. 9.
Baylor improved to 10-5 at home Saturday. Coach Scott Drew addressed the Bears faithful by grabbing the PA microphone afterward, saying: “These guys are still fighting and so are you. Thank you for helping us.”
Drew later said in his news conference: “In coaching, you can analytically look at all the facts and figures. What you can’t put on there is confidence, swag, momentum, connectedness.”
Arizona has won the last two contests against Baylor, including a 74-67 victory last season in Waco.
–Field Level Media
