SAN DIEGO — NCAA Tournament West Region No. 1 seed Arizona did not rely on the 3-pointer much in the regular season, but the Wildcats unleashed a first-half barrage from long range to set the tone in their 92-58 romp of No. 16 seed Long Island on Friday.
Arizona (33-2) came into the postseason averaging 5.9 3-pointers made per game. By the final media timeout before halftime in the first of Friday’s four games in San Diego, however, the Wildcats were 6 of 9 from beyond the arc.
Brayden Burries sank the sixth triple in Arizona’s early 3-point salvo, part of an 18-2 run spanning a little more than six minutes and giving the Wildcats a 27-point lead. Burries connected on 4 of 5 3-pointers, all in the first half, en route to a game-high 18 points.
A partisan pro-Arizona crowd erupted throughout Viejas Arena at the conclusion of the pivotal burst, particularly in response to back-to-back dunks by Koa Peat and Burries.
Long Island (24-11) shot well from deep in its own right, with Mason Porter-Brown and Jamal Fuller combining to knock down five 3-pointers by intermission, and six of the team’s eight for the contest.
However, the Sharks’ struggles to contain the Wildcats on the interior proved insurmountable.
Arizona scored 50 points in the paint, a portion of which came off the Wildcats’ 22 second-chance points. The bigger Arizona lineup dominated the glass, 52-31, with 16 on the offensive end.
“Rebounding is always an interesting thing,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said. “There’s some old adages — long shot, long rebound. There’s some truth to that, especially getting in the tournament with the new Wilson balls. Sometimes they bounce back a little farther than they’re used to.”
While the oft-discussed basketballs used throughout the NCAA Tournament may have caused some unexpected caroms, Lloyd added his team came in prepared for any kind of bounce — and it showed.
“There’s another adage, short shot, short rebounds. You’ve got to be great on those. We work on our rebound instincts every single day,” Lloyd said. “We want our rebounding mentality to be more based off instincts than habits or techniques.”
Ivan Kharchenkov, Tobe Awaka. Motiejus Krivas and Peat each grabbed three offensive boards, part of their 10, eight, seven and seven respectively. The quartet also fueled Arizona’s effective interior scoring on the way to 15 points for Peat, 14 for Karchenkov, nine for Krivas and 11 for Awaka off the bench.
The Wildcats, who now advance to face ninth-seeded Utah State in the second round on Sunday, settled almost exclusively into the lane in the second half, not attempting a second-half 3-pointer until Anthony Dell’Orso’s miss at the 5:30 mark.
Arizona pulled ahead by as many as 32 points early into the second half, but Long Island continued to scrap behind Porter-Brown, Fuller and Greg Gordon. The trio finished with 15, 12 and 11 points and keyed six quick unanswered points in a stretch midway through the latter 20 minutes.
Long Island’s full-court pressure defense forced Arizona into a six-minute spell of sloppy play that resulted in six of the Wildcats’ 10 turnovers for the game. Arizona regrouped, putting the Sharks away for good with an 11-0 run to make it 78-45.
“I’m proud that the second half that we came out and we fought,” said Long Island coach Rod Strickland. “”That’s what I wanted to see. I just wanted to make sure we played hard and we went out the right way.”
As for Arizona’s chances, the Sharks coach said he “look(s) forward to seeing them, I’m sure, move further” in the Tournament.
–Kyle Kensing, Field Level Media
