Fresh off perhaps their best game of the season Saturday in a dismantling of Michigan, the Wildcats took the floor at the McKale Center again on Tuesday night vs Oakland and picked up right where they left off. Arizona sprinted out to an 18-2 lead after a T.J McConnell jumper and led by as much as 25 in the first half before heading to the locker rooms up 20 at intermission.
It was a balanced attack all night for Arizona who put five players in double figures led by Stanley Johnson's 18 with 11 players in all scoring. Brandon Ashley contributed 15 of his own with eight rebounds while Kaleb Tarczewski chipped in 12 and seven. We even got to see one of the first signs of an outbreak from heralded freshman Craig Victor who had nine points in 10 minutes of play after being glued to a bench role most of the early season.
For Oakland a long night could be summed in a variety of areas but CBSsports' own Jon Rothstein eloquently did the job for all of us:
Trying to run offense against Arizona is about as enjoyable as driving from NY to DC during rush hour on a Friday in July. Brace yourself!
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) December 17, 2014
Oakland was relegated to 35 percent shooting, under 25 percent from three and turned the ball over 14 times as the Wildcats completely threw the Golden Grizzlies out of sorts in the first half. The lone bright spot for Oakland was guard Kahlil Felder who put in 20 points to go along with nine assists, a startling number when you consider his teammates shot a combined 15-44 on the evening.
However Oakland's problems didn't end there as the Wildcats outrebounded the Golden Grizzlies 47-20 and Oakland committed 28 fouls in a game that turned into a bit of a whistle fest at times.
All in all it was an encouraging sign for the Wildcats who to this point of the season had a bad habit of waiting until the second half to put far inferior opponents away due to slow starts. With the win the Wildcats moved to 11-0 on the season and extended their impressive unbeaten streak in out of conference games as they head into the final two before PAC-12 play starts.
The Wildcats return back to action on Friday night at UTEP at 9 PM MST.